PD152 - ALLOCATED DIETITIANS IMPROVES INTAKE IN NUTRITIONAL RISK PATIENTS

PD152

ALLOCATED DIETITIANS IMPROVES INTAKE IN NUTRITIONAL RISK PATIENTS

A. Rytter^1,*, A. Hardis¹, I. Wessel¹

¹Clinical Nutrition Center, Department of Transplantation and Digestive Diseases, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

Rationale: Adequate nutrition is crucial for hospitalized patients, particularly long-term inpatients at nutritional risk. This study, part of a regional nutrition audit, assessed the coverage of energy and protein needs in patients who had been hospitalized for 4 days or more and were identified as being at nutritional risk using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002). This study aims to compare nutritional intake in wards with and without allocated dieticians. Wards with allocated dietitians included hematology and oncology departments, where patients often present with complex disease courses and pronounced challenges in meeting nutritional requirements.

Methods: Registration took place as a single day observation in autumn 2025. 147 patients across the entire hospital with about 600 beds total were at risk patients, who had been hospitalized for 4 days or more. Data were collected using dietary records or, if missing, interviews and staff assessments of intake categorized in quartiles of energy and protein requirements. Patients were stratified by wards with or without allocated dietitians. Sufficient coverage was defined as ≥75% of individual energy and protein needs.

Results: On wards with allocated dietitians 88% of patients achieved sufficient energy and 76% patients achieved sufficient protein intake; none received less than 50% of either energy or protein need. On non-allocated dietitian wards 42% patients had sufficient energy intake and 35% sufficient protein intake. A substantial proportion received less than 50% of their requirements: 30% for energy and 46% for protein.

Conclusion: Allocation of dietitians is associated with higher coverage of energy and protein needs in nutritional risk inpatients. At non-allocated dietitian wards have a significant proportion of patients with critically low intake, emphasizing the importance of targeted nutritional interventions.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared