Asian Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Volume 12 (1), 34-38, 2020


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Nutritional Risk Assessment in Critically ill Adult Patients: A Study from Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates

Ramasamy Kalavathy, Sumaya Ahmed Al Araj, Nazneen Zara, Khadra Omer and Yousef Altair

Background and Objective: Malnourished patients have worse clinical outcomes than their well-nourished counterparts; unfortunately, this relationship is often exacerbated in the intensive care unit (ICU) due to the hyper metabolic nature of critical illness. Accurately identifying patients at risk for malnutrition is essential to decrease negative outcomes during hospitalization. This study aims to assess the nutritional risk in critically ill patients using NUTRIC score-an ICU specific nutrition risk assessment tool. Materials and Methods: Adult patients (>18 years) who were admitted in the ICU and stayed for more than 24 h were included in the study. To identify the patients at nutritional risk, modified NUTRIC score (m-NUTRIC score without IL-6 values) was used. Patients having a NUTRIC sore of 0-4 were classified to have low malnutrition risk and those having a score of 5-9 were associated with worse clinical outcomes. SPSS 24 software was used to analyze the data. Data of 50 patients was analyzed. Results: A total of 84% patients had a high NUTRIC score (5-9) and 16% had a low NUTRIC score (0-4). This clearly indicates that the patients with high NUTRIC score are at nutritional risk. The mortality rate in this study was 12.5% for patients with low NUTRIC score in comparison to 28.6% among patients with high NUTRIC score. Conclusion: The prevalence of nutritional risk in critically ill patients using m-NUTRIC score was 84% in this study. It was observed that high NUTRIC score is associated with increased mortality and increased ICU length of stay and these patients are most likely to benefit from aggressive nutrition therapy.

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How to cite this article:

Ramasamy Kalavathy, Sumaya Ahmed Al Araj, Nazneen Zara, Khadra Omer and Yousef Altair, 2020. Nutritional Risk Assessment in Critically ill Adult Patients: A Study from Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Asian Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 12: 34-38.


DOI: 10.3923/ajcn.2020.34.38
URL: https://ansinet.com/abstract.php?doi=ajcn.2020.34.38

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