Relationship between duration of heart failure and nutritional status in hospitalised patients - preliminary cross-sectional study

Introduction Heart failure (HF) is a chronic disease which is one of the most common causes of hospitalisation of elderly patients. Nutritional status has a crucial impact on the course of disease and survival. HF frequently occurs with nutritional deficits, which may lead to malnutrition and loss of skeletal mass, which makes the prognosis worse. Nutritional status depends also on the patient's economic status, ability to prepare meals, and availability of fresh vegetables and fruits. Knowledge of the connection between the duration of heart failure and nutritional status will enable selection of patients with a higher risk of malnutrition, for which nutritional support should be considered. Purpose The study aims to assess the variability of nutritional status in heart failure patients over the duration of the disease, using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI). Methods The nutritional status of 134 patients with HF admitted to the cardiology department was assessed with the MNA questionnaire. Additionally, GNRI has counted from serum albumin concentration, weight and height of patients. Patients were divided according to the duration of HF into two groups, one with patients with equal or less than five years of history of disease and the second with patients with HF lasting more than five years. Results The mean age was 52.4±16.9 years, 20.2% of patients were women, and the mean LVEF was 30.3±13.8%. The group of patients with HF lasting equal or less than five years was younger than patients with more than five years of the disease (49.5±16.9 years vs. 57.3 ±16.2 years, p=0.002). There were no significant differences in sex, LVEF and NYHA class between the two groups. According to MNA and GNRI scores, the nutritional status had no differences between the group of patients suffering from HF for more than five years compared with those with HF lasting 5 years or less (p=0.50; p=0.63, respectively). Moreover, the time of HF lasting was not correlated with scores of MNA and GNRI (p=0.33; p=0.22). Conclusions The study found no significant association between the nutritional status of patients and duration of heart failure. Therefore, monitoring nutritional status is crucial, irrespective of the duration of HF. It is necessary to analyse this issue in a larger group of patients with heart failure to identify specifically which patients are at risk of malnutrition and how nutritional status changes with the duration of the disease.