NutritionDay in Worldwide Hospitals: An International Audit and Registry on Nutrition and Outcome

Malnutrition at hospital admission is a risk factor for an unfavourable outcome, prolonged hospital stay and delayed recovery. In these patients the incidence of complications such as nosocomial infections, poor ventilatory function, prolonged bed rest is increased. In addition a relevant proportion of patients have a nutritional intake below their needs during hospitalisation.Mortality has been shown to be up to 8 times higher and dependency at discharge up to 3 times more frequent when actual food intake was below 25% of calculated needs. The aim of this international cross-sectional multicentre audit and registry is to generate a risk and level of nutritional intervention profile for an individual unit/ward based on case-mix, nutrition care and available structures. This profile should give a snapshot on the relation of risk to resource allocation. The audit is unit centered. Each unit gets as a feedback anonymously its position compared with all other participating units. Risk adjustment for selected patient groups, social environments and structures is planned. In conclusion this audit/registry will serve five distinct aims: * Generate a precise map of the prevalence of malnutrition before admission and of decreased nutrient intake according to risk factors, medical specialty, organisational structures and countries. * Increase in awareness for clinical nutrition in patients, caregiver and hospital managers. * Enlarge and maintain a reference database for hospitalised patients * Provide individual unit benchmarking