Nutritional assessment is an important tool for healthcare providers to evaluate a patient's overall nutritional status, diagnose malnutrition, and identify underlying pathologies that can lead to it. At our clinics in Westminster and Broomfield, we strive to provide our patients with a comprehensive view of their food-related health and the overall well-being of their body through a comprehensive nutritional assessment. When people consume the wrong foods on a daily basis, they can develop serious health problems if this imbalance continues for years. Investing in a professional nutritional evaluation is the best way to check your current diet and adjust it before serious issues arise.
Conditions associated with chronic diseases, such as anorexia and asthenia, can lead to poor food intake and protein-energy malnutrition. A preoperative nutritional evaluation is one way to determine if the patient will be able to comply with the postoperative diet and necessary vitamin and mineral supplementation. Nutritional evaluation should begin at the time of diagnosis and then be performed longitudinally during treatment and during survival. Maintaining a favorable nutritional status is essential to minimize the morbidity associated with the disease and maximize the child's quality of life.
The purpose of nutritional assessment is to define a patient's nutritional status, identify clinically relevant malnutrition, and monitor changes in the patient's nutritional status. Studies have shown that nutritional risk at the time of admission and the worsening of nutritional status during hospital stay are associated with a longer hospital stay. Unfortunately, not all patients are routinely evaluated upon admission to the hospital and nutritional treatment is often not initiated in malnourished patients with a high nutritional risk. The basic laboratory evaluation of nutritional status should include liver and kidney function, glucose and lipid measurement.
Stress-induced catabolism can also cause gastrointestinal dysfunction, infections, and wound healing problems, which can lead to reduced food intake and protein-energy malnutrition. Currently, several screening instruments are used to assess malnutrition in older people, together with clinical diagnostic tests, anthropometry, bioelectrical impedance analysis or biochemical markers. These assessments have demonstrated an association between poor nutritional status and prolonged hospital stay, decreased quality of life, and increased morbidity and mortality.
