Effect of admission nutritional status on length of hospital stay.

Malnutrition is a large problem among patients admitted to U.S. hospitals and is an area of increasing concern for GI health care professionals. We conducted a prospective assessment of the admission nutritional status of 500 consecutive patients admitted to the Huntington Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Admission nutritional status was compared to the length of hospital stay (LOS). Nutritional status was calculated based on three equally weighted and easily obtained parameters--serum albumin, total peripheral blood lymphocyte counts and unintentional weight loss over time. A significant difference (p less than 0.01) was noted for the LOS between patients with normal, mildly abnormal and moderately abnormal nutritional status as compared with the patients with severe malnutrition. The length of hospital stay progressively increased with deterioration of nutritional status. The GI practitioner is in a key position to assess nutritional status of hospitalized patients. If malnutrition can be documented on hospital admission, attempts can be made to reverse the malnutrition and hopefully diminish LOS.