The impact of malnutrition on morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay and costs evaluated through a multivariate model analysis

Malnutrition has been identified as affecting patient outcome. The purpose of this study was to correlate the nutritional status of hospitalized patients with their morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay and costs. The patients were nutritionally assessed within the first 72 h of hospital admission. The patients’ charts were surveyed on the incidence of complications and mortality. Hospital costs were calculated based on economic tables used by insurance companies. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and the Cox regression model were used to identify possible confounding factors. A P