Implementation of Nutritional Treatment to Older Patients Discharged With the Liaison Team

During hospitalization, many older patients are at risk of malnutrition. Malnutrition in older adults is related to reduced physical function, more complications, re-admissions, days in hospital and reduced quality of life. As hospitalizations are often short (approximately 5 days), it is important to focus on nutritional intake during the convalescence period.

Upon discharge, a "Nutrition Gap" often occurs in practice, where the patient does not consume sufficient nutrition to ensure an optimal convalescence period. The lack of nutritional follow-up in connection with the discharge of older patients has been shown to have a markedly negative effect on, among other things, functional ability and readmissions. A study from Herlev Hospital, where the effect of a nutritional treatment upon discharge of older patients was investigated, showed a significant effect on muscle strength, quality of life and nutritional status. Another study from Herlev Hospital has shown that by associating a clinical dietitian with a liaison team and thus focusing on nutrition, the readmission rate was halved.

The problem is that it has not been investigated whether such a cross-sectoral effort can be implemented in practice and the results confirmed.

Hypothesis 1 is that it is possible to include and retain the older patients who are discharged with the liaison team for an effort that includes treatment of the risk of malnutrition and that the older participants find the effort relevant

Hypothesis 2 is that nutritional treatment will be able to reduce the number of unintended readmissions and thereby be cost-effective. Furthermore, it is expected that the nutritional treatment will increase the participants' nutritional status, muscle strength, muscle mass, quality of life and possibly have a positive effect on mortality.