To evaluate the effect of nutrition support on nutritional status and clinical outcome of patients at nutritional risk in internal medical departments.

148 patients at nutritional risk as identified by Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 were numbered according to the order of admission and divided into standard care group(control group, odd numbers, n=75)and individualised nutrition support group(intervention group, even numbers, n=73). Intervention consisted of encouraging food intake, designing food plan, and assuring implementation of food prescription. Energy and protein intake, body weight, length of hospital stay, hospitalization expenses and complications were compared between the two groups.

In the interventions group, protein intake was significantly higher than that in the control group [(45.1±2.2)g/d vs.(54.8±2.5)g/d, P=0.004], and energy intake higher than that in the control group [(4 180.0±227.4)kJ/d vs.(4 589.6±150.5)kJ/d, P=0.135] but without statistical significance. Intervention led to an intake of ≥75% of requirements in 46.6% patients in the intervention group, significantly higher than the proportion in the control group(30.7%)(P=0.047). The change of body weight was significantly smaller in the intervention group than in the control group[(-0.4±0.2)kg vs.(-1.1±0.2)kg, P=0.025]. The length of hospital stay, hospitalization expenses, and incidence of complications showed no signifi-cant differences between the control group and the intervention group [(13.5±0.9)d vs.(12.4±0.6)d, P=0.310; (17 834±1 824)yuan vs.(16 099±1 243)yuan, P=0.435; 12.8% vs. 8.1%, P=0.184].

Patients at nutritional risk in internal medical departments could benefit from nutrition support in terms of protein intake and body weight maintenance. A large-scale randomized controlled trial is necessary to confirm the effect of nutrition support on clinical outcomes of patients at nutritional risk.

Nutrition support; Malnutrition; Hospitalization; Intervention; Randomized controlled trial