Methodology of Research in Influences of Nutritional Intervention and Nutritional Risk on Clinical Outcome

Objective To summarize the methodology used in research in the influences of nutritional intervention and nutritional risk on clinical outcomes. Methods A computerized literature search was performed using the National Library of Medicine's Entrez PubMed. The articles about Nutritional Risk Screening 2002(NRS2002) and clinical outcome were retrieved for detailed evaluation of the study findings and study methodology. Results Totally 20 studies on the NRS2002 were found in the PubMed,among them 8 studies were on NRS2002 and clinical outcomes. The clinical outcomes included complications,length of hospital stay,mortality,and hospital cost,among which the operational definitions of complication and the length of hospital stay varied in different studies. The study findings revealed the nutritionally at-risk patients had more complications,higher mortality,longer lengths of stay,and more cost than not at-risk patients. One study showed that among patients with complications,the intervention group that received nutritional intervention had a significantly lower length of hospital stay than the control patients. Conclusions Several different operational definitions of complications and length of stay are used in evaluating clinical outcomes. More clinical trials are needed to validate the effect of nutritional support on clinical outcome among nutritionally at-risk patients. The non-randomized study design is applicable when it combines with multivariate analysis to exclude confounding factors.