Assessment of Nutritional Status for Patients Admitted to Adult Intensive Care Unit in Orotta National Referral Hospital, Eritrea 2025
Hisabu Kidane Gebremedhin, Alawit Gebrebrhan Ghdey, Henok Tarik Mekonen, Tekleab Bereketab Andom, Temesgen Hailay Ghebreab, Okbamichael Tekle Zewde.
Background: The World Health Organization defines nutrition as the amount of food consumed in relation to the body’s dietary needs and outlines the distinction between good and bad nutrition. Good nutrition is a combination of a balanced diet and exercise, while poor nutrition is a catalyst for adverse health conditions including reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development and reduced productivity, So Malnutrition is one of the major problems during the stay in the intensive care units (ICUs) as most critically ill patients are immunosuppressed.
Aim: the aim of the study was to assess the nutritional status of patients admitted to adult intensive care unit of Orotta national referral and teaching hospital between admission and discharge.
Method: A prospective observational study design was used from admission to discharge. Data was collected using subjective global assessment (SGA) and anthropometric measurements from all patients admitted to the intensive care unit during the study period.
Results: sixty-one patients were participated in the study. From those, the average mean age of the participants was 52.07 years (SD=19.18) and majority of the participants were male (60%) and married (73%). Patients were assessed using anthropometric measurements during admission and discharge. And the results showed that, there were significant decrease with (P<0.001) compared admission to discharge. A Comparison of the overall nutritional status using the SGA rating between admission and discharge, using McNamara’s test, revealed a slight increment in well nourished patients from 6.6% at admission to 11.5% at discharge.
Conclusions: the study concluded that the majority of patients presented with mild or moderately malnourishment using SGA and with significant decrease in anthropometric measurement during their stay.
Nursing Implication: Primarily the research provides an opportunity for nurses to contribute to the growing body of knowledge, in this area farther more nurse could have played a pivotal role in raising awareness among patients the potential risk and implementing preventive measures to minimize malnutrition in the critical ill patients.
