Oral Nutrition Supplements Signify Reductions in Length of Hospital Stay


A new study of over one million adult hospital cases conducted by leading health economists and supported by Abbott, found that oral nutrition supplements provided to patients during hospitalization are associated with significant reductions in length of stay and hospitalization cost. Additionally, the 30-day readmission risk was significantly reduced for patients with at least one known subsequent readmission.


The retrospective analysis utilized information from more than one million adult inpatient cases found in the 2000-2010 Premier Research Database maintained by the Premier healthcare alliance —representing a total of 44 million hospital episodes from across the United States or approximately 20 percent of all inpatient admissions in the U.S. Benefits associated with patients provided oral nutrition supplements during hospitalization included 21% or 2.3 days reduction in length of stay and 21.6% or $4,734, reduction in patient hospitalization cost.


"Impaired nutritional status, especially in patients recovering from serious illnesses or surgery, can result in longer hospital stays; an increase in complication rates, higher readmission rates, and associated health care costs, " says Dr. Marianna Sioson, president of the Philippine Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. "Research shows that using oral nutritional supplements can help reduce their length of stay and associated hospital costs. This is indeed good news for the 4 out of 10 hospitalized Filipino patients who are nutritionally at-risk since most of them shoulder their hospital expenses out of their own pockets."

During Abbott's forum, Dr. Sioson discussed how Malnutrition is a global problem. Did you know that malnutrition is not just about being underweight? Because of nutrition imbalance, being overweight also means that you are not getting enough nutrients in your body, thus, leads to complications. 

That is why to address malnutrition, one recommended nutrition therapy is the Oral Diet + Medical Nutrition Supplementation. One way to manage care is taking oral supplements like Ensure to fill the body's needs. 

"Because oral nutrition supplements are formulated to provide advanced nutrition and calories for compromised patients and are relatively inexpensive to provide, the sizeable savings they generate make supplementation a cost-effective therapy," said study co-author, Tomas Philipson PhD, Daniel Levin Chair of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. 


Dr. Jose Rodolfo Dimaano Jr. also explained to us the Undernutrition Risk Screening. Here are 4 simple questions to check if you are at risk of undernutrition:

1. Did you experience weight loss unintentionally within the past 3 months?
2. Did you have decreased food intake over the past three months?
3. Do you often have difficulty eating/chewing/swallowing food?
4. Which of the plates best represent your daily food intake?
     a. Eat only 20% of food daily
     b. Eat only 40% of food daily
     c. Eat only 60% of food daily
     d. Eat only 80% of food daily 
     e. Finishes 100%

If your answer is mostly yes, then you'd know that you are at the risk of undernutrition. 

Abbott and Philspen partners to fight against undernutrition by increasing awareness on the importance of nutrition to patient outcomes by identifying risk for undernutrition to trigger early intervention.

For more than 85 years, Abbott Nutrition has been developing and marketing science-based nutritional products to support the growth, health and wellness of people of all ages. Internationally recognized brands include the Similac® brand of infant formulas; the Gain® brand of growing-up milks; the PediaSure® brand of complete and balanced nutrition for children; and the Ensure® brand of complete and balanced oral nutritional supplements for adults.


The company is a leader in nutritional products clinically shown to address the distinct dietary needs of people with serious health conditions or special nutrient requirements, such as the Glucerna® brand of nutrition shakes and bars for people with diabetes.

Let us all be aware about undernutrition. I'm glad that I learned a lot about this forum, because I needed to relay the information to my parents too. If you are aware about the problem, we can have healthy and happy individuals. To know more, visit Abbott at www.abbott.com and connect on Twitter at @AbbottNews.

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