Failure to achieve proteic goals in non-critical patients increases risk of death: old discussion, ongoing problem
Nayara Cristinada Silva nutr. 2020.Nutrition Available online 16 June 2020, 110894
Highlights
• Nutritional goals for non-critical patients are rarely discussed in the literature.
• Hypocaloric and hypoproteic nutrition increases in-hospital mortality.
• Hypoproteic nutrition has a more significant impact on in-hospital mortality rates.
• Non-critical patients are sometimes neglected due to their seemingly favourable clinical condition.
• 38% of patients did not meet their recommended nutrition goals during the length of their hospital stay.
Providing adequate nutritional support for hospitalized patients continues to be a challenge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of energy and protein provision with in-hospital mortality in non-critically ill patients. A retrospective study (2014-2016) was performed with all patients over 18 years who were admitted to medical and surgical clinic wards and given exclusive enteral therapy. The mean of energy and protein was estimated per day and per kilogram of body mass from the enteral prescription data, over the whole period of hospitalization. A prescription mean was considered hypocaloric or hypoproteic at <20 kcal/kg/day or <0.8 g/kg/day, respectively. Of the 240 patients, 58.3% were over 60 years and 60.0% were male. The frequencies of in-hospital mortality (19.2%) and malnutrition (78.8%) were high.
The means of protein (0.75 g/kg/day) and energy (17.60 kcal/kg/day) were below the general recommendations and 37.8% did not reach a mean of 20 kcal/kg/day during the whole hospitalization period. Hypocaloric (HR: 5.78; 95%CI: 1.59–21.04) and hypoproteic nutrition (HR: 3.69; 95%CI: 1.25–10.93) were predictors of all-cause in-hospital mortality in adjusted multivariate models. However, when we adjusted the hypoprotein nutrition by energy (non-protein calories to nitrogen ratio), hypoprotein nutrition seems to maintain the increased risk of death (HR: 3.15; 95% CI: 1.04-9.53).
Hypoproteic nutrition appears to be more significant than hypocaloric nutrition in predicting all-cause in-hospital mortality. Protocols should be implemented to ensure that target caloric and protein levels are reached as quickly as possible in order to optimize patient survival.