PD154 - EFFECT OF AN OPTIMIZED HOSPITAL MENU ON DIETARY INTAKE IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS: A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH

PD154

EFFECT OF AN OPTIMIZED HOSPITAL MENU ON DIETARY INTAKE IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS: A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH

J. H. Hundebøll^1,*, I. Wessel¹, F. Magkos², A. Rytter¹

¹Clinical Nutrition Center, Department of Transplantation and Digestive Diseases, Rigshospitalet, ²Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Rationale: A previous study from our institution showed suboptimal energy and protein intake among hospitalized patients at lunch and dinner. A more energy and protein dense menu was implemented with focus on familiarity of the dishes. In this study we evaluated whether these changes improved dietary intake.

Methods: In a hospital-based observational study at a publicly funded tertiary referral center, dietary intake was assessed at lunch and dinner at separate time points before and after optimization of the menu. Data were collected across the same medical and surgical wards as the prior study using an identical protocol in both trials. Intake from lunch and dinner buffet meals was measured using weighed food records at component level, with all items weighed before and after consumption to quantify intake. A total of 533 meals were compared with 392 meals from the previous dataset. Differences in intake were analyzed using linear mixed models accounting for clustering within wards.

Results: Energy and protein intake increased following menu modification. At lunch, energy intake increased by +65 kcal (+26%, p<0.001) and protein by +4.2 g (+41%, p<0.001) without change in food weight. At dinner, energy increased by +204 kcal (+77%, p<0.001) and protein by +4.4 g (+38%, p<0.001). Energy density increased at both meals (+54 and +48 kcal/100 g, p<0.001), while protein content (pr. 100 g) increased at lunch (+3.1 g, p<0.001) but not dinner (p=0.069). Food weight was unchanged at lunch but increased at dinner (+56 g, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Optimization of hospital menus increasing energy and protein density incorporating familiar foods improved dietary intake in hospitalized patients. These findings support menu optimization as an effective to improve nutritional intake in routine clinical care.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared