Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Assessment of Nutritional Status and Risk of Malnutrition Using Adapted Standard Tools in Patients with Mental Illness and in Need of Intensive Psychiatric Treatment

Ladina Risch
ORCID logo ,
Florian Hotzy
ORCID logo ,
Stefan Vetter
,
Sascha Hiller
,
Kathrin Wallimann
,
Erich Seifritz
,
Sonja Mötteli
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 28 November 2022 / Approved: 30 November 2022 / Online: 30 November 2022 (02:44:53 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Risch, L.; Hotzy, F.; Vetter, S.; Hiller, S.; Wallimann, K.; Seifritz, E.; Mötteli, S. Assessment of Nutritional Status and Risk of Malnutrition Using Adapted Standard Tools in Patients with Mental Illness and in Need of Intensive Psychiatric Treatment. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 109. Risch, L.; Hotzy, F.; Vetter, S.; Hiller, S.; Wallimann, K.; Seifritz, E.; Mötteli, S. Assessment of Nutritional Status and Risk of Malnutrition Using Adapted Standard Tools in Patients with Mental Illness and in Need of Intensive Psychiatric Treatment. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 109.

Abstract

People with severe mental illness (SMI) are often in poor physical health, resulting in higher mortality and reduced life expectancy compared to the general population. Although eating habits are one of the main predictors of physical health, few studies assess the nutritional status and eating behaviour of people with SMI. The aim of this study was to examine the nutritional status and risk of malnutrition in people with SMI and in need of intensive psychiatric treatment. The cross-sectional study included 65 inpatients and 67 outpatients with psychotic or depressive disorders from the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich. Patients’ assessments at admission included anthropometric measurements, such as weight and height, and interview data including severity of symptoms and functioning (SCL-K-9, PHQ-D, CGI, m-GAF), personal and medical data, nutrition risk screening tools (adapted NRS, MNA-SF) and laboratory values. The results showed that 32% of the inpatients (body mass index [BMI] = 25.3) and 34% of the outpatients (BMI = 27.9) were at risk of malnutrition, which was associated with higher levels of psychiatric symptoms and lower levels of functioning. These results indicate that a substantial proportion of psychiatric patients seem to be at risk of malnutrition, despite most being overweight, and hence they might benefit from nutritional support during their psychiatric treatment. Moreover, nutritional risk screening tools specifically developed for the mental healthcare setting are needed.

Keywords

nutritional risk screening; severe mental illness; psychiatric treatment; BMI; nutritional status; malnutrition; depression; schizophrenia; nutrition; diet

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Mental Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download PDF

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0
Get PDF Cite Share 0
Bookmark BibSonomy Mendeley Reddit Delicious
×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.