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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1474039

Impact of nutritional screening on mortality and intensive care unit length of stay

Provisionally accepted
Blanca Cecilia Díaz Chavarro Blanca Cecilia Díaz Chavarro 1Manuel Romero-Saldaña Manuel Romero-Saldaña 2,3*Jorge Karim Assis Reveiz Jorge Karim Assis Reveiz 4Guillermo Molina-Recio Guillermo Molina-Recio 2,3
  • 1 University of Santiago de Cali, Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
  • 2 PROFESSOR/ UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA, Córdoba, Spain
  • 3 Facultad de Medicina y Enfermería, Universidad de Córdoba, Cordoba, Spain
  • 4 Clinica de Occidente, Santiago de Cali, Colombia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Nutritional assessment is a fundamental part of the treatment of patients hospitalized in the ICU, allowing the implementation of interventions appropriate to the identified requirements. Since the risk of malnutrition is a modifiable factor, its correct management can positively influence hospital evolution. This study aims to test the impact of the incorporation of nutritional screening and assessment on mortality and length of stay in patients hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit in Cali, Colombia, during the years 2019 and 2021-2022.Methods: This is a historical cohort epidemiological study where one cohort consisted of 114 patients who received a standard nutritional screening (interpretation of body mass index and its clinical impression). The other cohort of 630 patients was those exposed to screening with the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) scale. Hematological, clinical, and nutritional variables were considered and their relationship with adverse events, length of hospital stay, and discharge status.Results: There were significant differences between the two cohorts (p <0.001), with increased mortality and length of hospital stay in patients who received standard nutritional screening without MUST. Furthermore, there was a greater presence of enteral support, diarrhea, anemia, leukocytosis, and lymphopenia in this cohort.Implementing the MUST screening method and specific nutritional interventions resulted in a significant improvement in patient mortality figures. In addition, the predictive mortality model revealed that emesis and leukopenia increased the probability of death.

    Keywords: Nutritional screening1, Critical Care2, Malnutrition3, Mortality4, Intensive care unit5

    Received: 31 Jul 2024; Accepted: 24 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Díaz Chavarro, Romero-Saldaña, Assis Reveiz and Molina-Recio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Manuel Romero-Saldaña, PROFESSOR/ UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA, Córdoba, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.