title: Individualized measurement of disease-related malnutrition's costs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Disease-related malnutrition has a significant economic impact in hospitals, but accurate measurements of these costs have rarely been reported. The aim of this study is to calculate the actual costs of disease-related malnutrition in hospitals, taking into account every cost that patients generate during their hospital stay.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients admitted to medical wards were included in this study. Nutritional evaluation was carried out by two methods (Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 and Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire) at admission and/or at discharge. Hospitalization costs were measured for each patient individually, considering the cost of the bed, the Intensive Care Unit, the physicians' services, the laboratory tests and diagnostic procedures, and the drug costs. Differences in costs between malnourished patients and non-malnourished patients were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Malnourished patients incurred higher costs than non-malnourished ones. The cost increase for malnourished patients ranged between 45% and 102%. The nutritional status accounted for most of this increase. The most outstanding difference in patients' costs was between those patients who maintained their nutritional status, either well or malnourished, during their hospital stay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Disease-related malnutrition clearly has an impact on the cost of hospital care provision, particularly in malnourished patients who do not improve their nutritional status during their hospital stays. Individualized cost analyses are needed to identify the real costs of malnutrition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: cristinagasta@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gastalver-Martín
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alarcón-Payer
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Nutrition, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: León-Sanz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000191:economics*; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000191:economics; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000191:economics; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Costs; Disease-related malnutrition; Hospitalization costs