Nutrition is essential for human health. Malnutrition in the hospital setting is common, and often underrecognised. Malnutrition increases morbidity, length of stay and mortality in patients, and increases postoperative complications. Patients' nutritional status should be screened upon admission and if there is evidence of a poor nutritional state, the patient should be referred for further evaluation and management. Nutritional requirements may vary in disease states and the route of feeding is dependent on the patient's disease and organ function. These issues will be addressed in this review.
Nutritional Requirements ; Malnutrition

The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is the preferred method to evaluate long-term usual dietary intake in population-based epidemiological studies because it is simple, easy to administer and requires minimal effort from the subjects. Therefore, we validated a food frequency interview schedule (FFIS) to estimate the dietary intakes of the urban population of Hyderabad city. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among five socio-economic sections of Hyderabad. Areas for the survey were selected by cluster random sampling and households in each area were selected by simple random sampling. The FFIS was developed and validated against a 6-day 24-hour dietary recall (HDR) method. The instruments were administered to the participants six months apart to check for reproducibility. Statistical analyses for validation and reproducibility included correlation, regression analyses and paired t-test. Results: Means of intakes of foods measured by 24-HDR were significantly lower than those measured by FFIS for some foods at alpha levels of 0.05. Pearson's correlation (r) for the intakes by the two methods ranged from 0.12 to 0.85. Regression coefficients were significant for 12 food groups. Correlation coefficients for the two FFISs were between 0.31 (spices) and 0.81 (carbonated beverages) and showed good reproducibility. Intakes of conventional foods like cereals, pulses, vegetables etc. by FFIS correlated better with 24-HDR than the processed foods such as breakfast cereals and bakery items. Conclusion: The data suggests that the FFIS is a well-validated, reproducible tool for assessment of long term dietary habits of a specific population. However, its use for populations of other regions requires specific modifications.
Nutritional Requirements ; Interview ; Population

OBJECTIVEThe goal of this study was to analyze protein requirements in healthy adults through a meta-analysis of nitrogen balance studies.

METHODSA comprehensive search for nitrogen balance studies of healthy adults published up to October 2012 was performed, each study were reviewed, and data were abstracted. The studies were first evaluated for heterogeneity. The average protein requirements were analyzed by using the individual data of each included studies. Study site climate, age, sex, and dietary protein source were compared.

RESULTSData for 348 subjects were gathered from 28 nitrogen balance studies. The natural logarithm of requirement for 348 individuals had a normal distribution with a mean of 4.66. The estimated average requirement was the exponentiation of the mean of the log requirement, 105.64 mg N/kg•d. No significant differences between adult age, source of dietary protein were observed. But there was significant difference between sex and the climate of the study site (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe estimated average requirement and recommended nutrient intake of the healthy adult population was 105.64 mg N/kg•d (0.66 g high quality protein/kg•d) and 132.05 mg N/kg•d (0.83 g high quality protein/kg•d), respectively.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is the most common method of enteral nutrition for patients who require long term artificial nutrition. PEG has been used as a method of nutritional support; however, improvement of nutritional support via PEG has not yet been reported. In this study, we analyzed the efficacy of nutritional support via PEG. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 196 consecutive patients who underwent PEG at Kyung Hee University Hospital in Gang Dong from 2006 to 2012. We analyzed clinical characteristics, the method of nutritional support, and the proportion of intake to establish recommendations for nutritional requirements and the duration needed to reach the level of appropriate nutrition. RESULTS: A total of 196 patients included 130 men and 66 women, and their mean age (standard deviation) was 69.1+/-14.0 years. Compared with caloric and protein supplementation before PEG, 113 kcal (13.8% of baseline) and 4.8 g of protein (17.5% of baseline) could be additionally supplied with PEG (P=0.001, respectively). The number of patients who could take more than 90% of the recommended requirements of caloric and protein supplementation after PEG showed increased caloric and protein intake by 25.4% and 20.2%, respectively, in comparison with those before PEG (P=0.001 and P=0.001, respectively). The mean duration of catch-up for more than 90% of the recommended caloric and protein intake was approximately 11 days. Procedure related complications and early mortality were reported in 8.1% and 0% of patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PEG is an effective and safe nutritional support method for patients who require long term artificial nutrition.
Endoscopy ; Enteral Nutrition ; Female ; Gastrostomy ; Humans ; Male ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status ; Nutritional Support ; Retrospective Studies

The objective of this study was to determine the nutritional support in patients treated in medical intensive care units (MICUs) by evaluating the extent of current nutritional support using the patient care plan and considering the association between nutritional status and the amount of nutrition supplied. From April to December 2010, 114 patients (age > or = 18 years) admitted to the MICU and who underwent nutritional support for > 5 days were included. Descriptive statistics showed that the 114 patients received nutritional support within 1.2 +/- 0.7 days and for 16.2 +/- 11.7 days in the MICUs. The total delivered/required caloric ratio was 81.08 +/- 27.31%, and the protein ratio was 80.32 +/- 28.93%. Patients who received > 80% of required calories and protein showed improved nutritional status (p < 0.05). The results showed that adequate nutritional support is crucial to critically ill patients. We suggest early nutritional screening using simple tools such as periodic monitoring and management to recalculate nutritional status and nutritional requirements and nutritional support using a multidisciplinary method. Systematic nutritional support teams are needed to provide adequate nutritional support for patients in the MICU.
Critical Illness ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Mass Screening ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status ; Nutritional Support ; Patient Care

Skin is the first line of defense for protecting our bodies against external perturbations, including ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, mechanical/chemical stress, and bacterial infection. Nutrition is one of many factors required for the maintenance of overall skin health. An impaired nutritional status alters the structural integrity and biological function of skin, resulting in an abnormal skin barrier. In particular, the importance of micronutrients (such as certain vitamins and minerals) for skin health has been highlighted in cell culture, animal, and clinical studies. These micronutrients are employed not only as active compounds in therapeutic agents for treating certain skin diseases, but also as ingredients in cosmetic products. Here, the author describes the barrier function of the skin and the general nutritional requirements for skin health. The goal of this review is to discuss the potential roles and current knowledge of selected micronutrients in skin health and function.
Animals ; Bacterial Infections ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Micronutrients* ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status ; Skin Diseases ; Skin* ; Vitamins

Nutrition is an essential component of total adolescent health care. Two important changes occurring during adolescence can cause a crisis in the teenager's nutritional needs. First, growth in height, weight, and body component is greater and more rapid than at any time since infancy. Second, an adolescent's eating habits may change from regular meals prepared at home to irregular meals, skipped meals, and nutrition-poor snacks and fast-food meals. Adolescents have been found to have the highest prevalence of any age group of an unsatisfactory nutritional status. To understand the nutritional requirements of the adolescent, health practitioners should be aware of the intensity and timing of the adolescent growth spurt, the differences in the growth spurt between males and females, and the individual variation in timing of the growth spurt from teenager to teenager.
Adolescent* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Eating ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status ; Prevalence ; Snacks

The nutritional status affects the factors of patient outcome such as the therapeutic intervention, the length of hospitalization and prognosis. Personalization of nutritional support treatments can minimize the complications that may arise from overfeeding and underfeeding. Appropriate nutritional support requires an individual nutrition assessment based on each patient's caloric and regularly monitored respiratory quotient to accommodate continuing changes in the patient's condition.
Basal Metabolism ; Calorimetry, Indirect ; methods ; Energy Intake ; Humans ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Status

During the management of critical illness, optimal nutritional support is an important key for achieving positive clinical outcomes. Compared to healthy people, critically ill patients have higher energy expenditure, thereby their energy requirements and risk of malnutrition being increased. Assessing individual nutritional requirement is essential for a successful nutritional support, including the adequate energy supply. Methods to assess energy requirements include indirect calorimetry (IC) which is considered as a reference method, and the predictive equations which are commonly used due to the difficulty of using IC in certain conditions. In this study, a literature review was conducted on the energy metabolic changes in critically ill patients, and the implications for the estimation of energy requirements in this population. In addition, the issue of optimal caloric goal during nutrition support is discussed, as well as the accuracy of selected resting energy expenditure predictive equations, commonly used in critically ill patients.
Calorimetry, Indirect ; Critical Illness* ; Energy Metabolism ; Humans ; Malnutrition ; Methods ; Nutritional Requirements ; Nutritional Support

The Global Consensus for Feeding the Preterm Infant was published in the Journal of Pediatrics 3 supplement, 2013. The content of the consensus includes recommended nutrient intake for different gestational age preterm infants, identifying appropriate growth curves, the use of breast milk, nutritional recommendations for the late-preterm infant and the preterm infant after hospital discharge, nutritional requirements and feeding recommendations for small gestation age infants, reconsideration of the importance of vitamin A and vitamin D for immature infants, recommendations for immunonutrients, and the association of feeding of preterm infants with later metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes. The main characteristics of the consensus: (1) aimed to improve prognosis; (2) individualized nutritional strategy based on gestational ages; (3) coexistence of consensus and controversy in feeding of preterm infants.
Gestational Age ; Humans ; Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena ; Infant Welfare ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Nutritional Requirements