Persian Nutritional Survey In Hospitals (PNSI) is a multicenter, cross-sectional study conducted in 20 public hospitals in Iran. Informed consent was obtained from all the patients recruited in this study. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (number 920923). Two educational sessions were held for investigators and a written instruction about data collection was provided.
In each hospital, the investigators referred to included clinical wards and assessed newly admitted or discharged patients on a specified date consecutively. The inclusion criteria comprised of admitted or discharged patients within the age of 18 to 65 years with Iranian nationality, also we excluded duplicated patients. Patients undergoing surgery on the data collection day, outpatients, patients with trauma or eating disorders, and patients admitted to maternity, obstetric, pediatric, orthopedic, and emergency departments or intensive care units (ICUs) were excluded from the study. The study was conducted from 24th to 28th November 2015. STROBE checklist of study is available as supplementary material 1.
Data collection
Patient characteristics, i.e., gender, date of birth (age), underlying disease, the main affected organ, comorbidity, the number of different prescriptions per day, and history of ICU stay and surgery were recorded. The length of hospital stay was calculated for discharged patients from the date of admission and date of the survey. Body weight was measured by standard Seca scale (Seca 620, Germany) in light clothes to the nearest 1 kilogram. Body height was assessed by Seca portable stadiometer (Seca 213, Germany) to the nearest 1 centimeter. Mid-arm circumference (MAC) was measured in mid-acromion and olecranon process interval at the non-dominant relaxed arm with a non-stretchable tape measure to the nearest 0.1 centimeter.
Nutritional status
The nutritional status of patients was assessed by subjective global assessment (SGA) and anthropometric measures (BMI and MAC) for all the admitted and discharged patients included in the study (16).
SGA is a valid and reliable tool for assessing nutritional status in hospitalized patients (17,18). Among the recommended screening tools, SGA enjoys the highest diagnostic accuracy for acute care patients. Baker et al (17) and Detsky et al. (18) demonstrated that the use of SGA for evaluating patients yields reliable results with inter-observer reliability of 80%. SGA is comprised of two components: medical history and physical sign. In the medical history part, the severity and pattern of weight loss, dietary intake, gastrointestinal symptoms, and functional capacity are evaluated. In the physical signs part, loss of subcutaneous fat, muscle mass, and presence of edema and ascites were assessed. According to this tool, patients are classified as well-nourished (SGA-A), moderately malnourished (SGA-B), and severely malnourished (SGA-C) (15).
Body mass index (BMI; weight/height2) is most commonly used for assessing nutritional status. BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by squared height (m2) (19). If BMI was less than 18.5, between 18.5 and 25, and higher than 25, the patient was considered as malnourished, normal, and overweight or obese, respectively.
Statistical analysis
Quantitative variables with normal distribution were expressed as mean, standard deviation, and range. Quantitative variables with non-normal distribution were reported as median and range. Stratified variables were reported as frequency and percentage. Analysis of nominal qualitative data was performed by non-parametric tests such as the Chi-squared test. Mann-Whitney test was used for ordinal qualitative variables; for quantitative variables with normal distribution, t-test was run. Odds ratios (OR) were reported with 95% confidence interval. To identify independent risk factors logistic regression was used. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant