Nutrition scores and MUAC of adult surgical orthopaedic inpatients at a teaching hospital in Lusaka province, Zambia

BackgroundPoor nutrition status among hospitalised patients has been shown to increase length of hospital stay, as well as contribute to increased morbidity and mortality. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the nutrition status of adult surgical orthopaedic patients attending a teaching hospital in Zambia. MethodsThis study adopted a hospital-based cross-sectional study design to collect data from 98 adult patients aged 18 - 64 years. A structured questionnaire, the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) tool, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) tape were used to collect data during the study period of three months in 2015. ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 36.4 plus or minus 9.44 years, while the mean length of hospital stay was 17.33 plus or minus 10.91 days. Nutrition-focused physical examination revealed that majority (89.8%) of the patients were of acceptable weight with no weight loss reported in 70.4% of the patients. Poor appetite was only reported by 10.2% of the patients. SGA findings suggest that most of the patients (79.6%) were well-nourished. The mean mid-upper arm circumference of the study participants during hospitalization was 25.09 plus or minus 2.85 cm. An association was found between length of hospital stay and mid-upper arm circumference of the patients (p<0.001). ConclusionSubjective Global Assessment has the potential to evaluate the nutrition status of surgical patients in resource-poor settings such as Zambia. However, the use of SGA should be supplemented by other tools such as MUAC which has the potential to screen for adult malnutrition in clinical settings with limited resources.