A Trial of Oral Nutritional Supplements on Nutritional Status and Clinical Outcomes

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to determine whether short-term use of oral nutritional supplements as part of the diet improves nutritional and functional status of post-hospitalization malnourished elderly.

Detailed Description
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Nutritional supplements have been shown to improve energy, protein, micronutrients intake, maintain or improve nutritional status in hospitalized malnourished elderly patients. However, its use in the elderly post-hospitalization is unknown, particularly in the local setting. This randomized controlled trial aims to investigate if provision of short term nutritional supplements to elderly malnourished patients after discharge from hospital improves nutritional status parameters. In addition, the impact of nutritional supplements on functional status, clinical outcome in terms of hospital readmission, number of visits to general practitioner/polyclinic and the acceptability of nutritional supplement in elderly are also examined. In this study, malnourished elderly subjects >65 years old identified by Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool from geriatric ward 63C will be recruited within 24 to 48 hours before discharge. They will be randomized into either intervention or control group. Subjects in the intervention group will receive nutritional supplements of 600 to 900 kcal as part of regular diet. As for the control group, these similar calories will be recommended from food fortification, as part of the standard care during diet counseling, to come from food. Both group subjects receive individualised assessment by the Dietitian. At baseline, nutritional status parameters such as weight, height, body mass index, skinfold thickness, handgrip strength, albumin and functional status will be measured. Subjects are then followed up at outpatient dietitian clinic 4 and 12 weeks from hospital discharge. Albumin test will be repeated at week 4 and week 12. They will keep a three-day food record end of week 1, week 4 and week 12 in order to assess their food and nutritional supplements intake. Compliance will be monitored from food diaries and interview. At the end of week 12, the same nutritional parameters will be re-evaluated for both groups. In addition, the number of hospital admissions, visits to the general practitioner/polyclinic and the acceptability of nutritional supplements will be determined. The results from this study will guide future nutritional interventions for the malnourished elderly post-hospital discharge.

Official Title
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A Randomized Controlled Trial of Oral Nutritional Supplements on Nutritional Status and Clinical Outcomes in Malnourished Elderly

Conditions
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Malnutrition

Intervention / Treatment
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* Dietary Supplement: Nutritional Supplement (Ensure Plus)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: over the age of 65 years old and to be discharged from Geriatric ward malnourished screened by Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool Exclusion Criteria: are uncommunicative have a history of diabetes, chronic renal failure, liver disease are from long term residential homes like nursing homes incapable of taking study supplements to provide a minimum of 600 kcal/day as part of food intake intolerant to any of the ingredients in the study nutritional supplements require parenteral nutrition or enteral feeds as sole source of nutrition, e.g. patients who discharge home with tube feeding

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 65 Years
Maximum Age: 85 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Intervention/Treatment |
| --- |
|Dietary Supplement: Nutritional Supplement (Ensure Plus)|Subjects will be provided with 2 to 3 serves of Ensure Plus (complete nutritional beverages) and to be taken between meals|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Body weight | Body weight is measured to the nearest 0·01 kg using Seca clinical scales. If weight could not be measured accurately, recalled weight is used (Elia, 2003; Stratton et al. 2003a). | Baseline, week 4 and week 12 | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Skinfold thickness | Triceps skindfold thickness, mid arm circumference will be measured at above time points | Baseline, week 4 and week 12 | 
| Handgrip strength | Muscle grip strength will be measured at above time points | Baseline, week 4 and week12 | 
| Blood Albumin |  | Baseline, week 4 and week12 | 
| Barthel Score | Instrumental for assessing activities daily living | Baseline & week12 | 
| Number of visits to general practitioner/polyclinic | Above data will be collected at the end of the study | Week 12 | 
| Hospital readmission | Above data will be collected at the end of the study | Week 12 | 
| Acceptability of nutritional supplements | Above data will be collected at the end of the study | Week 12 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Elderly, malnutrition, nutritional supplement