Farzaneh Montazerifar - Associate Professor of Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran
Mansour Karajibani - Associate Professor ,Health Promotion Research Center , Dept. of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
Ali Reza Dashipour - Assisstant Professor of Food Science, Department of of Food Science , School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran
Nadia Nouri - Student Scientific Research Center, Dept. of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.

Background and Aim: Malnutrition is highly prevalent in developing countries. The patients hospitalized in hospital may also be at high nutritional risk. However, their nutritional status is poorly documented. The aim of study was to estimate prevalence of malnutrition at hospitalized patients. Methods: In this study, 450 adult patients (mean aged; 44.6 ± 15.3 years) were selected from a general teaching hospital in Zahedan, south- east of Iran. The patients were recruited within 72 hours of admission to hospital from different wards including surgery, nephrology, gastroenterology and CCU. The nutritional data including appetite assessment and gastrointestinal problems, and also anthropometric parameters including the weight, height, BMI and mid –upper arm circumference (MUAC) and serum albumin levels were assessed. The Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) criteria were used to assess malnutrition. Results: According to the MUST criteria, 40% of patients had malnutrition. 71.9 % had serum albumin < 3g/dL. 53.6% arm upper circumference (MUAC) <5th and 50.9% had hospitalized readmission. 56.2% of patients in the age group > 50 years old were at high risk of malnutrition. The highest prevalence of malnutrition was observed in nephrology ward (48%). Conclusion: This study shows that malnutrition is widely prevalent in hospitalized patients .Since, nutritional status may be deteriorated during hospital stay, it is suggested that nutritional screening by a simple procedure are applied at admission to hospital.

Malnutrition, Hospitalized patients, Adults