The magnitude of the problem of malnutrition in Europe.

A review of the publications on hospital malnutrition in Europe over the last 5 years shows that the incidence and prevalence of malnutrition are still very high: 21 and 37%, respectively. The process of structured nutrition support is still far from being generally implemented, as based on the few studies available. As a result, malnutrition diagnosed on admission to hospital is still associated with adverse clinical outcome (increased length of stay and higher rates of complications).

[1]  J. Kondrup,et al.  Nutritional risk screening (NRS 2002): a new method based on an analysis of controlled clinical trials. , 2003, Clinical nutrition.

[2]  Janice Sorensen,et al.  EuroOOPS: an international, multicentre study to implement nutritional risk screening and evaluate clinical outcome. , 2008, Clinical nutrition.

[3]  M. Vázquez,et al.  Nutritional status study of inpatients in hospitals of Galicia , 2005, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

[4]  J. R. Andersen,et al.  Incidence of nutritional risk and causes of inadequate nutritional care in hospitals. , 2002, Clinical nutrition.

[5]  H. D. de Vet,et al.  Development and validation of a hospital screening tool for malnutrition: the short nutritional assessment questionnaire (SNAQ). , 2005, Clinical nutrition.

[6]  H. Kristensen,et al.  Prevalence of patients at nutritional risk in Danish hospitals. , 2003, Clinical nutrition.

[7]  M. Jarosz,et al.  Nutritional status of patients hospitalised in Poland , 2005, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

[8]  Dorothee Volkert,et al.  The German hospital malnutrition study. , 2006, Clinical nutrition.

[9]  M. Elia,et al.  Malnutrition in hospital outpatients and inpatients: prevalence, concurrent validity and ease of use of the ‘malnutrition universal screening tool’ (‘MUST’) for adults† , 2004, British Journal of Nutrition.

[10]  K. Gerasimidis,et al.  A local nutritional screening tool compared to malnutrition universal screening tool , 2007, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

[11]  Marinos Elia,et al.  Disease-related Malnutrition: An Evidence-based Approach to Treatment , 2003 .

[12]  P. Rehak,et al.  Comparison of different scoring methods for assessing the nutritional status of hospitalised patients , 2004, Wiener klinische Wochenschrift.

[13]  G. Frost,et al.  The prevalence of malnutrition in hospitals can be reduced: results from three consecutive cross-sectional studies. , 2005, Clinical nutrition.

[14]  H. Adèr,et al.  Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of early screening and treatment of malnourished patients. , 2005, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[15]  C. Martins,et al.  Undernutrition Risk Screening and Length of Stay of Hospitalized Elderly , 2005, Journal of nutrition for the elderly.

[16]  B. Mikkelsen,et al.  Practices in relation to nutritional care and support--report from the Council of Europe. , 2002, Clinical nutrition.

[17]  C. Pichard,et al.  Comparison of tools for nutritional assessment and screening at hospital admission: a population study. , 2006, Clinical nutrition.