Patients ‘lacking in awareness over dangers of malnutrition’

The Patients Association said the Government needed to provide more information to patients and healthcare professionals on basic nutrition and the importance of monitoring weight as an early warning sign.

The report entitled Malnutrition in the Community and Hospital Setting, based on a YouGov survey, is the largest of its kind in the UK on the issue of malnutrition and involved 5,018 respondents.

The survey revealed only seven per cent associate good nutrition with maintaining a regular healthy weight, suggesting that for many patients monitoring their weight regularly is not seen as a tool to check that they are adequately nourished. Instead they felt the term related to having a balanced diet and eating five fruit and vegetables a day.

Very few were aware malnutrition can delay recovery from illness (43 per cent) and impair wound healing (25 per cent).

The results revealed that 69 per cent of inpatients did not recall being screened for malnutrition on admission to hospitals and very few carers carry out formal screening checks such as regular weighing (16 per cent).

A fifth of respondents were unaware there are treatments and actions that can easily be put in place to treat individuals suffering from malnutrition, the Patients Association said.

Other recent research has shown patients with malnutrition visit their GP twice as often as those who are well nourished; are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital; have an increased stay in hospital by three days; and two thirds of people who are malnourished receive no treatment for malnutrition.

The Patients Association said more than three million people are either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition in the UK, with an estimated cost to the NHS of £13bn a year.

It called for the Department of Health to provide information on basic nutrition and the importance of monitoring weight loss as an early warning sign to patients and healthcare professionals and ensure nutritional screening is mandatory in health and social care setting.

The association also said GP consortiums should ensure information is translated down to action across the local health service and funding is ring-fenced for community-based dietetics and treatment options if clinically required.

It also calls for new public health directors to have a role in promoting prevention of malnutrition, with a possible role for community pharmacists in screening for and promoting good nutrition.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ““Malnutrition is a huge issue within our hospitals and communities.”