Nutrition

Malnutrition is common in all healthcare settings, but it is often recognised late and at too advanced a stage to be reversed by simple measures.

Screening tools exist but are found difficult to implement and their uptake is poor. The Group plans a regional review of why this is so.

Locally relevant objective data can then guide work to provide simpler alternatives - ideally based on information that is already routinely recorded but not used for this purpose.

In the longer term, therapeutic interventions focused on medium-risk populations (such as middle-aged adults) will be devised aiming to improve nutritional status and reduce associated future morbidity.

Reducing the prevalence of malnutrition in the community.

Malnutrition is present in about 30% of those admitted to hospital, where it contributes to a more expensive and longer duration of stay. This malnutrition, however, has its origins in the community and in other high-risk populations. We aim to identify an alternative to conventional nutrition risk screening, such as opportunistic blood test-based risk identification, which can help to bridge current gaps in the system.

Through earlier identification of malnutrition and earlier clinical intervention, it will help to reduce its associated morbidity, to reduce the rate of hospital admission and to shorten the duration of stay in those who still require in-patient care.