More Nutritional Support on the Wards after a Previous Intensive Care Unit Stay: A nutritionDay Analysis in 136,667 Patients

ICU (intensive care unit) patients are exposed to nutritional risks such as swallowing problems and delayed gastric emptying. A previous ICU stay may affect nutritional support upon transfer to the ward. The aim was to study the use of enteral (EN), parenteral nutrition (PN), and oral nutritional supplements (ONS) in ward patients with and without a previous ICU stay, also referred to as post- and non-ICU patients. In total, 136,667 adult patients from the nutritionDay audit 2010-2019 were included. A previous ICU stay was defined as an ICU stay during the current hospitalisation before nutritionDay. About 10% of all patients were post-ICU patients. Post-ICU patients were more frequently exposed to risk factors such as a BMI < 18.5 kg/m(2), weight loss, decreased mobility, fair or poor health status, less eating and a longer hospital length of stay before nDay. Two main results were shown. First, both post- and non-ICU patients were inadequately fed: About two thirds of patients eating less than half a meal did not receive EN, PN, or ONS. Second, post-ICU patients had a 1.3 to 2.0 higher chance to receive EN, PN, or ONS compared to non-ICU patients in multivariable models, accounting for sex, age, BMI, weight change, mobility, health status, amount eaten on nutritionDay, hospital length of stay, and surgical status. Based on these results, two future goals are suggested to improve nutritional support on the ward: first, insufficient eating should trigger nutritional therapy in both post- and non-ICU patients; second, medical caregivers should not neglect nutritional support in non-ICU patients.

Automated summary

ICU patients face nutritional risks and a previous ICU stay may affect nutritional support upon transfer to the ward. This study found that patients with a previous ICU stay were more likely to receive enteral nutrition, parenteral nutrition, or oral nutritional supplements compared to those without an ICU stay. These findings suggest the importance of improving nutritional support for patients upon transfer to the ward, regardless of their previous ICU experience.