title: Malnutrition and nutritional care practices in hospital wards for older people.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper is a report of a study conducted to gain a better insight into the current nutritional care practices in Belgian hospital wards for older people, and to study the association between these practices and the prevalence of malnutrition.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  In 1999, the Council of Europe assessed nutritional care practices and support in 12 European countries and showed them to be sparse and inconsistent. At the time of research, no studies had described the association between nutritional care practices and malnutrition prevalence in Belgium.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2007, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in a representative sample of Belgian hospital wards for older people. In total, 2094 patients from 140 wards for older people were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalence rate of malnutrition in wards for older people was 31.9%. Nutritional care practices such as nutritional screening and assessment, use of a standardized screening instrument and a nutritional protocol were suboptimal. Multilevel analysis revealed that ward characteristics explained for 9.1% whether a patient was malnourished or not. None of the registered nutritional care practices could explain a patient's individual risk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Malnutrition is a frequently occurring problem on hospital wards for older people. Increased consciousness among healthcare professionals and hospital policy makers of the importance of nutritional care will contribute to further improvement in care quality.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Science Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium. katrien.vanderwee@ugent.be
authors.forename: Katrien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vanderwee
authors.forename: Els
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Clays
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bocquaert
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verhaeghe
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lardennois
authors.forename: Micheline
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gobert
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Defloor
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D002983:Clinical Competence; D058620:Elder Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000600:supply & distribution; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic