[Nutritional risk evaluation and establishment of nutritional support in oncology patients according to the protocol of the Spanish Nutrition and Cancer Group]. / Evaluación del riesgo nutricional e instauración de soporte nutricional en pacientes oncológicos, según el protocolo del grupo Español de Nutrición y Cáncer.

INTRODUCTION: Cancer and its oncological treatment cause symptoms which increase the patients risk to suffer from malnutrition. This affects the patients health status negatively by increasing the number of complications, reducing the tolerance to the oncology treatment and a decrease of the patients quality of life. Motivated by this, a group of health professionals from several spanish regions met with the backing of the Sociedad Española de Nutrición Básica y Aplicada (SENBA) to address strategies to improve the quality of nutritional intervention in cancer patients. METHODS: This multidisciplinary group developed a protocol describing nutritional assessment and intervention in form of algorithms based on literature and personal experience. The patients are classified in a three step process: 1. type of their oncology treatment (curative or palliative); 2. nutritional risk of the antineoplastic therapy (low, medium or high risk) and 3. depending on the Subjective Global Assessment patient-generated (SGA-pg). The patients are classified as: A. patients with adequate nutritional state, B. patients with malnutrition or risk of malnutrition and C. patients suffering from severe malnutrition. During one year, the protocol has been used for 226 randomly chosen female and male patients older than 18 years. They were treated by the Medical and Radiotherapy Oncology outpatient clinic. RESULTS: More than a half of the patients were suffering from malnutrition (64%) increasing up to 81% for patients undergoing palliative treatment. Most of them were treated curatively (83%) and received oncology treatment with moderate or high nutritional risk (69%). 68% of patients were affected by some feeding difficulty. The mean percentage of weight loss has been 6.64% +/- 0.87 (min 0%, max 33%). Albumin values of 32% of the patients were between 3 and 3.5 g/dl and negatively correlated with feeding difficulties (p = 0.001). The body mass index (BMI) has not found to be a significant parameter for detecting malnutrition (only in 10% of the patients, the value was below 19.9 kg/m2). But a significant linear tendency when compared to feeding problems could be shown, such that in patients with less feeding problems a higher BMI has been found (p = 0.001). More than a half of the patients required nutritional counselling to control symptoms which made food intake difficult. One third of the patients needed oral nutritional supplementation. Following the nutritional intervention the weight of about 60% of the patients could be maintained and of one sixth it could be increased. CONCLUSION: The application of this protocol is useful, easy and could help detecting malnutrition in oncology patients. It provides the possibility to select those patients who can benefit from a specific nutritional intervention. If possible, the application of the protocol should be started immediatly after cancer is diagnosed. Nutritional support proves efficient for most of the patients.

[Self-perception of cancer patients on the relationship existing between their nutritional status, their feeding status, and their illness]. / Autopercepción de los pacientes con cáncer sobre la relación existente entre su estado nutricional, su alimentación y la enfermedad que padecen.

INTRODUCTION: Knowing the opinion of oncologic patients about the importance they give to their feeding, the difficulties they have with feeding, their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, the relationship between their feeding and their illness, the relationship between their physical activity and their mood and health is essential to look for nutritional therapeutic interventions leading to improvement of quality of life and, in general, the feeling of well being. Thus, it is paramount to know the patients' opinion of these issues. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We passed a questionnaire to 131 patients. The patients were recruited from the Day-Hospital of the Medical Oncology and Radiotherapeutic Oncology Departments, and from the Hospitalization Department of Medical Oncology. In the questionnaire, we asked in a simple manner about the importance the patients give to all these issues. This is a 20-item questionnaire, divided into six parts: 1. Vital statistics; 2) perception about the disease and its relationship with feeding; 3) Perception of the relationship between physical activity and mood with feeding; 4) Nutritional therapies prescribed to the patients and their perception on its effect on the disease progression; 5) Current difficulties with feeding; 6) Demand of nutritional care. RESULTS: The patients mean age was 57 +/- 13 years. 45% were males, and the remaining females. 81% life in an urban area, and only 14% in a rural area. The educational level was categorized in 5 groups: without education, basic education, elementary school, high school, or college studies. 28% had basic education, and 19% college studies, and only 8% had no education at all. Their occupation was also categorized in five groups: home-keeping, student, unemployed, employed, and retired. 33% were employed, 29% retired, and 34% were home-keepers. Most of the patients (74%) are aware of their illness and perceive it as severe or very much severe. Most of these patients worry about their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, and they relate them with their feeding status. 74% find a relationship between their nutritional status and their physical activity, and 73% relate it with their mood. At least half of the patients perceive their mood as being low. Although 47% manifested having some difficulty for feeding, only 34% had received some information about their diet, 26% had consumed nutritional supplements, and 81% still consumed their diet without any change. The most common difficulties for feeding were decreased appetite (38%), early satiety (32%), and nausea (20%). The nutritional intervention most commonly required by the patients was general and specific nutritional education to alleviate the symptoms associated to oncologic therapies. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the patients are aware of the severity of their illness and care about their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, which they associate with their nutrition. Most of the patients find a close relationship between their nutritional status, their physical activity and their mood. More than half of the patients manifest having some difficulty feeding, but only one third of the population has received information about their diet some time. It is clearly shown that oncologic patients need different effective nutritional intervention measures contributing to improve their feeling of well being.

Análisis de las encuestas de hábitos alimentarios realizadas en población escolar durante la 4ª edición del Día Nacional de la Nutrición (DNN) 2005 / No disponible

El día nacional de la nutrición (DNN) sigue siendo un marco importante y de mucho interés a nivel nacional. En el pasado año 2005, el 28de mayo estuvo dedicado a la alimentación infantil, bajo el lema “Ejercicio y buena alimentación para un futuro mejor”, donde se quiso profundizaren algunos aspectos de la alimentación de los niños españoles en edad escolar y transmitir el mensaje sobre la importancia de una buena nutrición en esta etapa de la vida, puesto que incide de forma decisiva en la salud del adulto. Para la evaluación del consumo alimentario habitual de los niños escolares en España, incluyendo el consumo de refrescos, golosinas, bollos y aperitivos, se han analizado los Datos de 2078 cuestionarios, auto-administrados, respondidos por los padres de los niños participantes de las charlas educativas sobre la alimentación infantil y la práctica de actividad física en esa edición del DNN. El cuestionario consistió en 14 preguntas cerradas de opción múltiple y una frecuencia de consumo habitual de alimentos. Los resultados observados corroboraron la importancia del desayuno como condicionante de un mejor patrón alimentario. Las frutas, verduras y legumbres, son las grandes olvidadas, paralelo a un consumo excesivo de fiambres. Sin embargo, el consumo de alimentos energéticos(arroz, pasta, patata, pan), de lácteos, huevos, carnes y pescado ha mostrado frecuencia y variabilidad aceptable en la mayoría de los niños. El hecho de disponer de dinero, así como la realización de la comida en el hogar implica un mayor consumo de chucherías, bollería, etc, y refuerza la importancia del rol de los padres en la adecuada oferta de alimentos. El elevado consumo de estos alimentos y, especialmente, de refrescos sigue siendo preocupante, porque parece estar repercutiendo negativamente en la elección de alimentos sanos. El consumo diario de alimentos de bajo valor nutricional pero de alto contenido calórico, añadido a la ingesta de alimentos y bebidas entre horas, pueden representar un riesgo para el desarrollo de sobrepeso, sobre todo si no existe una educación adecuada. Resulta importante aclarar conceptos de equivalencia nutricional de los alimentos, fundamentalmente en cuanto a vitaminas, minerales y fibra, así como la pérdida de nutrientes por la manipulación y procesos culinarios, puesto que se observó una marcada equivocación al elegir zumos de frutas en lugar de frutas frescas, verduras y patatas. Por todo ello, concluimos que si bien no debe excluirse ningún alimento, debemos seguir educando para una mejor selección de los mismos (AU)

The Nutrition National Day (DNN) has been representing an important educational event in Spain, being useful to population. In May 28th,2005, the DNN was dedicated to infant feeding with the slogan "Exercise and good food for a better future", in order to know some aspects of the feeding of children in scholar age and transmit the message about the importance of a good nutrition in this age, given that it affects, in a decisive manner, the adult health. To evaluate habitual nourishing consumption by Spanish children in scholar age, including beverages, sweets, buns and appetizers, 2078questionnaires were analyzed. These questionnaires were formed by 14 multiple-choice questions and a food frequency questionnaire; that were fulfilled by the parents of the children whose have participated in an educative conference about nutrition offered in selected schools in Spain. The results showed the importance of eating daily breakfast on better nourishing habits. The fruits, vegetables and grains, are less consumed, while cold cuts were much consumed. However, the energetic foods (like rice, mass, potatoes, bread), of dairy products, eggs, meats and fishes, demonstrated an acceptable frequency and variety of consumption in the majority of the children. When the children had money to spend by themselves and when they had a lunch at home, they used to eat more sweets, buns and appetizers, etc., emphasizing the importance of parents in the suitable education on the correct elections of foods. The high consumption of these foods, especially beverages, continues being worrisome, since it seems to be influencing negatively in the election of healthy foods. The daily consumption of food with low nutritional value, but with a high caloric content, together with an ingestion of foods and drinks out of meals time, may represent a risk of overweight, mainly if does not exist a suitable education. It would be interesting to elucidate some concepts of nutritional equivalency, specially based on vitamins, minerals, fibre, as well as loss of nutrients by manipulation and cooking process, because great mistakes was observed when a fruit juice was preferred to a fresh fruit, vegetables and potatoes. In conclusion, knowing that healthy people do not need to exclude any food of diet, it must benecessary to continue educating the population to get a better selection of foods (AU)

IV Edición del Día Nacional de la Nutrición (DNN) bajo el lema “Ejercicio y buena alimentación para un futuro mejor” / No disponible

En las primeras etapas de la vida, la nutrición tiene una marcada influencia tanto en el desarrollo de las potencialidades del hombre así como en la prevención de enfermedades. Para que la adquisición de una conducta alimentaria sana tenga impacto preventivo tiene que empezar en la edad infantil, puesto que los hábitos adquiridos y practicados a lo largo delos años son muy difíciles de erradicar. Sobre la base de que la correcta alimentación y la actividad física son cuestiones fundamentales para la buena salud del niño y para su adecuado desarrollo en la edad adulta se desarrolló la IV edición del DNN bajo el lema “Ejercicio y buena alimentación para un futuro mejor”. Con este eje temático, se desarrollaron un conjunto de actividades encaminadas a transmitirá los niños la importancia de seguir una correcta alimentación y fomentar el ejercicio físico como cuestiones clave en su salud. Además, se ha tratado de concienciar, a su vez, a padres y educadores sobre la importancia de estos aspectos para el correcto desarrollo del niño. Consideramos que este evento ha tenido una excelente repercusión y aceptación por el público y los medios. Esta jornada al llevarse a cabo sólo un día no pretende ser una herramienta de educación alimentaria que modifique hábitos, pero pretende concienciar a la población y a las autoridades sobre la problemática actual en nutrición y, así mismo, crear en los medios de comunicación la responsabilidad de una información precisa y adecuada en relación a la nutrición (AU)

In the first stages of life, nutrition plays an important role in the development of man abilities and prevention of diseases. The learned habits throughout the years are very difficult to change or eradicate when it is necessary, so a healthful nourishing behavior must begin in the childhood for obtaining a preventive impact in health. The idea that the correct feeding and the practice of physical activity are essential factors to children good health and their adequate development until adult ages, promoted the 4th DNN edition, which slogan was "Exercise and good food for a better future”. This slogan generated some activities to make the children conscious of the importance of having a good nutritional behavior and encourage the practice of physical exercise, as the keys to get a better health. In addition, the objective of the DNN was to alert parents and educators of rule of these aspects in children development. We considered that this event has gotten an excellent impact and acceptation by population and communications media. Given that DNN is an event of just one day, we do not purpose to door it a nutrition education tool to modify habits, but that could be used to awake the population and the authorities about the actual nutrition problems, as well as to generate a precise and adequate nutrition information’s to be transmitted effectively by the media (AU)