ISABIAL leads a study to assess the impact of hospitalization on the nutritional status of patients over 65 years of age
The research, led by nurse and researcher Isabel Ortí Cortés, analyzes the impact of hospital stays on patients from seven regions
The aim is to identify nutritional needs and help plan specific interventions from a multidisciplinary perspective
Alicante (08.02.23). The Alicante Health and Biomedical Research Institute (ISABIAL) is leading the NUTRIFAG Study, “Impact of hospitalization on nutritional status and risk of frailty in people over 65”, which aims to assess the risk of malnutrition and nutritional status of patients admitted to medical and surgical hospitalization units in hospitals within Spain’s National Health System. The study involves medical and surgical units from nine hospitals.
The principal investigator is Isabel Ortí Cortés, a member of ISABIAL’s Nursing Care Innovation research group and Deputy Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing at the University of Alicante. This is a prospective, observational, multicenter, and multidisciplinary study involving 70 researchers, 80% of whom are women.
María Isabel Ortí Cortés highlights that “the multidisciplinary research team is made up of healthcare professionals (nurses, nutritionists, physicians, mathematicians) with clinical, teaching, research, and management profiles. In this way, a balance has been achieved within the teams at each study center, ensuring complementary knowledge and skills and guaranteeing their ability to successfully carry out the assigned tasks.”
Most of the Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics Units of the participating hospitals are fully involved in the study, especially that of Doctor Balmis University General Hospital. In addition, patient participation (reflecting the profile of the study population) has been incorporated throughout the entire research process through the Citizen Advisory Group.
The project will run until 2024 and is currently in the data collection phase, which is being carried out at Hospital Juan Ramón Jiménez (Huelva), Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa (Zaragoza), Hospital General Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Doctor Negrín (Las Palmas), Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova (Lleida), Hospital Universitario de Navarra (Pamplona), Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe de Valencia (Valencia), Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía (Murcia), and Doctor Balmis University General Hospital (Alicante), where the project is coordinated through ISABIAL.
The study will recruit a total of 4,077 patients (453 from each hospital). Data collected will include nutritional status, dysphagia (difficulty or inability to swallow), nutritional intake, demographic variables, clinical, functional, cognitive, and frailty‑related variables, risk profile variables, contextual variables, and variables related to the healthcare process.
The data collection process is structured into three phases. In the initial phase, nutritional status is recorded at hospital admission. In the second phase, data are collected seven days after admission in cases of prolonged hospitalization. Finally, the patient’s nutritional status is recorded at discharge, when the patient leaves the hospital.
Data collection is carried out using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) web application (www.project-redcap.org), which allows data to be collected from a computer or any mobile device. In addition, the research team involved in data collection has received specific training on the use and operation of this tool.
Isabel Ortí explains that “the implementation of this project aims to improve the health status, satisfaction, and care of people over 65 years of age who are hospitalized, and to help plan nutritional interventions that minimize alterations associated with malnutrition and dysphagia in the hospital setting”.
The project is funded by the Carlos III Health Institute through the Strategic Action in Health of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain, within the 2021 call, and co‑funded by the European Union (reference PI21/00738), with a total budget of 57,000€.
