Malnutrition remains an issue faced by healthcare professionals in hospitals. The prevalence of malnutrition in hospitals is still relatively high, especially in developing countries.
Malnutrition is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of nutrients that adversely affects body composition, function, and clinical outcomes. Nutritional screening is needed to detect malnutrition and prevent the deterioration of patients’ nutritional status during hospitalization.
This was stated by Professor Susetyowati in her inaugural speech as a professor in health nutrition at the UGM Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing (FK-KMK UGM) on Tuesday (May 7) at the UGM Senate Hall.
Professor Susetyowati explained that the causes of malnutrition in hospitals include underlying diseases that can affect increased basal needs accompanied by low food intake and decreased bioavailability of nutrients, which refers to how much nutrients can be absorbed and utilized by the body.
She emphasized that nutritional screening is essential for all inpatients to predict the probability of improvement or deterioration in outcomes related to dietary factors and to assess the impact of nutritional interventions.
“Weight loss, body mass index, and inadequate food intake are the key elements defining malnutrition,” said Professor Susetyowati.
So far, cases of malnutrition in hospitals have been attributed to a lack of routine measurement and recording of height and weight and a lack of skills in assessing nutritional status using anthropometry and biochemistry.
“This deficiency results in reduced medical records related to monitoring patients’ food intake, leading to undetected nutrient intake and a lack of routine monitoring of nutritional status,” she explained.
Professor Susetyowati has developed a nutritional screening tool called the Simple Nutrition Screening Tool (SNST). According to her, this tool has a very simple working pattern and can be completed in less than five minutes.
“This very simple nutritional screening tool does not require anthropometric measurements, which have been a barrier so far, and can be completed in a short time, namely 3 to 5 minutes,” she said.
SNST uses six questions to assess a person’s nutritional status. These questions include whether the patient appears thin, whether clothes feel looser, whether there has been unintentional weight loss in the past 3-6 months, whether there has been a decrease in food intake in the last week, whether the patient feels weak, lethargic, and lacking energy, and whether they suffer from diseases that alter the amount or type of food consumed.
In conclusion, Professor Susetyowati explained that the nutritional screening tool she developed has been compared with other nutritional screenings that have been proven valid and reliable. Therefore, the tool has the same value as other screening tools.
Author: Dita
Editor: Gusti Grehenson