ARAÚJO, É. T. G.; AQUINO, I. S.; BRITO, R. R. F. F.; TEIXEIRA, R. S. O.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/8337067606340098; http://lattes.cnpq.br/8997724196746155; http://lattes.cnpq.br/8565312387233697; ARAÚJO, Érica Tamires Gomes de.; AQUINO, Itiel de Souza.; BRITO, Randolfo Randall Farias Ferreira.; TEIXEIRA, Rosane Silva de Oliveira.
Resumo:
Introduction. Malnutrition in hospitalized patients correlates with increased
frequency of clinical complications and mortality, as well as being associated with
prolonged hospitalization, increased risk of infections and increased costs to the
health service. Objectives. a) Develop a systematic review on the effect of nutritional
status on length of hospital stay; b) Characterize the prevalence of malnutrition and
nutritional risk in hospitalized patients. Methodology. Systematic Review of original
articles using the keywords "Nutrition Assessment", "Length of stay" and "Prognosis",
from January 2004 to January 2014 in the databases Bireme/BVS, published in
English, Portuguese or Spanish. Results. From a total of 2,181 patients analyzed in
the selected studies, about 57% were aged 60 years or more, averaging between 63
and 85 years. The prevalence of malnutrition or nutritional risk of the general
population studied ranged from 0.98% to 69.9%, depending on the nutritional
assessment tool used in the analysis. Regarding time hospitalization and its
association with the degree of malnutrition or nutritional risk, a positive correlation
was shown in most series. Conclusion. The high prevalence of malnutrition at
admission seems to result in longer hospital patients, increased hospital costs and
worse clinical outcomes. Although a model of appropriate nutritional assessment
does not exist, its importance is indisputable and further studies are needed to further
elucidate the subject.