Malnutrition in hospital patients: where does it come from?

This article provides a comprehensive overview of malnutrition in hospital patients. It explores the issues surrounding nutrition and investigates factors that contribute to the malnutrition seen in patients within the community and to the malnutrition that develops while patients are in hospital. It proposes that although patients are at risk of malnutrition in the community, malnutrition can develop while the patient is in hospital, as the result of changes in diet, nutrition not being seen as a high priority, common hospital practices, and lack of knowledge of patients' previous nutritional state.