Subjective global assessment in the clinical setting

Background: Our goal was nutrition assessment in hospitalized patients of an internal medicine service. Methods: Ours was a longitudinal, prospective, and observational study. Four hundred twelve patients participated in this study using the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). We used chi(2) for univariate and logistic regression. Results: Of 412 patients, 47.6% presented with malnutrition: 38.8% with moderate malnutrition (group B), and 8.58% with severe malnutrition (group C). Malnutrition was related to male patients, older than 65 years, oncologic and infectious diseases, and length of hospitalization. Conclusions: Malnutrition incidence in an internal medical service is high. There is remarkable lack of interest in hospitalized patients' nutrition state. Results show similarities to other studies from Latin America.