Nutritional Status Assessment

Title: Nutritional status assessment of the patients on tube feeding.

1. Introduction

Food is required by every individual. Without food no one can survive on their own. Food gives energy to the body for performing various tasks. According to U.S Food and Drug Administration, food means a raw, cooked or processed edible substance, ice beverage or ingredient used or intended for use or for sale in whole or in part for human consumption, or chewing gum (Joshi, 2012).

Nutrition is basically a term which is used to describe the scientific impact of the food on the human body. Nutrition is defined as the scientific study of the food and its relation to health. It can also be defined as the science which deals with those processes by which body utilizes food for energy, growth and maintenance of health (Joshi, 2012). One can say that an individual is getting optimum nutrition only when his/ her body is receiving and utilizing all the nutrients as per the requirements of the body. Good nutrition plays a vital role in maintaining good health.

It can be said that an individual is getting ‘Normal Nutrition’ when he / she is getting adequate nutrients from the food that they are consuming and getting proper physiological and psychological satisfaction out of it at all the stages of the life cycle. A normal balanced diet must include all the food items from all the food groups, i.e., cereals and millets, body building foods, other vegetables and fruits, protective foods and energy group.

Nutritional status is condition of the body as it relates to consumption and utilization of food. The nutritional status of any individual can be categorized either as good or poor nutritional status. It can be said that an individual is having a good nutriti...

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... the feed is then increased according to the improvement in the condition of the patient. In the hospital, the feeding method used was enteral feeding method. Parenteral nutrition is not given to the patients. Enteral feeding is much more convenient than parenteral nutrition. Through enteral nutrition the patient’s body is able to maintain the nutritional status and a better health. There is a major difference between the recoveries of the patients who are eating orally as compared to the patients on tube feeding. The patients on tube feeding can take several months to recover as compared to patients accepting food orally.

Objectives

(a) To assess the dietary intake pattern of patients on tube feeding.

(b) To make interventions in the diet according to the needs of the patients.

(c) To do the assessment of the nutritional status of the patients on tube feeding.