By Folasade Akpan
The West African Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) has urged the Federal Government to include hospital-based nutrition care in the National Nutrition Agenda.
President of WASPEN, Dr Teresa Pounds, made the call on Tuesday at a virtual news conference organised in partnership with the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) to mark Malnutrition Awareness Week.
The programme, themed “Nutrition Care Is a Team Effort,” highlighted the need to strengthen nutrition screening, assessment and intervention for patients receiving hospital care.
“We also call for the National Nutrition Agenda to embrace the full continuum of nutrition care, meaning we need to think of the hospital. We need to take it to the acute care,” Pounds said.
She said government’s nutrition interventions had largely focused on food insecurity, children, maternal nutrition and breastfeeding, while malnutrition among hospital patients also required attention.
According to her, patients can be admitted already malnourished or become malnourished during hospitalisation, making routine nutrition screening, assessment and intervention critical.
“Institutions must have nutrition screening, they must have assessment, and they must make interventions based on the results of their screening,” she said.
Pounds said appropriate nutrition support should be provided according to patients’ needs, adding that physicians, nurses, dieticians, nutritionists, pharmacists, laboratory professionals, community health workers and hospital managers all had roles to play.
She said WASPEN had facilitated the formation of about six multidisciplinary nutrition support teams in health institutions, beginning with Lagos, Abuja and Asaba.
“WASPEN believes very strongly in that team approach in the key disciplines being involved in really identifying these patients and providing the care,” she said.
Pounds said the organisation’s activities included annual conferences, webinars and partnerships with health institutions and pharmaceutical companies to improve nutrition knowledge and address gaps in access to nutrition products.
“One thing is to identify the patient, that the patient is malnourished, but another thing is that you have to have the resources to take care of the patient,” she said.
She identified affordability and availability of nutrition products as major challenges, particularly amid rising inflation, and said WASPEN hoped to participate in technical groups addressing hospital malnutrition.
On evidence linking hospital malnutrition with mortality in Nigeria, Pounds said she was not aware of specific Nigerian data establishing such a relationship.
She, however, said studies from developing countries and the United States had linked malnutrition with poorer clinical outcomes and higher healthcare costs.
“We have data in the developing countries that really does show that malnutrition has a negative impact. Not only a clinical impact, but also a pharmacoeconomic impact,” she said.
Pounds said WASPEN planned to strengthen research on malnutrition in Nigeria to generate evidence that could guide improvements in patient care.
She said failure to address malnutrition could have serious consequences, including increased mortality, poor wound healing and prolonged recovery.
“If nothing is done in five years, then you will see huge implications of malnutrition,” she said.
Pounds said she had observed improvements in Nigeria’s response to malnutrition but wanted the attention given to community nutrition extended to hospitals.
She commended the Federal Government for initiatives including Nutrition 774, development of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035, increased attention to sustainable nutrition financing and renewed emphasis on micronutrient deficiencies.
She said WASPEN’s Malnutrition Awareness Week activities would include hospital sensitisation, clinical case presentations, hands-on training for healthcare professionals and webinars focused on multidisciplinary nutrition care.
Pounds urged stakeholders to ensure that nutrition remained part of healthcare from prevention through treatment and recovery.
“From the community to the hospital, from prevention to treatment, and then from screening to recovery, nutrition must remain part of the care that we provide,” she said.
Pounds, who is based in the United States and specialises in critical care and nutritional support, said her experience informed her decision to establish WASPEN to contribute to improving nutrition care in Nigeria.
She said the organisation had operated in Nigeria for about six years and was working to expand its activities across West Africa, with plans to inaugurate its Ghana chapter in November.(NAN)
Edited by Abiemwense Moru