Normal and Therapeutic Diets in Khartoum State Teaching Hospitals: Case Study Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital

Abstract

There is hardly any information regarding this subject, little approach had been put to meet the nutritional care of inpatients in this country? There fore this study was conducted to assess the adequacy of the hospital diets, offered and intake with respect to individual needs in Khartoum state teaching hospitals .as well as to assess dietary services, sanitation and implementation of therapeutic diets. Data were obtained from Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital, 49 adult female and 51 adult male who were admitted for a minimum period of 5 days .The mean age of the sample was 47± 16 years. Patients receiving entral or parenteral feeding admitted for surgical treatment or endoscopy were excluded. Average food offered and intake of the patients was calculated over 3 days using the weighing method, then checked against BLS (1999) Nutri Survey (www.nutrisurvey.de) and Passmore and Eastwood (1986) recommendations Results of the study showed that nutritional status of the patients was normal, further categorization showed that 36% were normal,35% were underweight, 17% overweight and 12% were obese. The hospital offered normal diet (38%) in addition to six therapeutic diets (62%), which were modified only by (8%) , often incorrectly planned and formulated. The intake of 95% patients could not meet their requirements due to illness, poor appetite and modification of the diets, anorexia, or lack of selective menu. A higher intake of protein, sodium, vitamins A and C were noticed, other micro nutrient were deficient. Energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat and salt intake differed significantly (p>0.05), ( p>0.005) and (p>0.0005) in most types of diets. The gap between what was offered and the intake of the patients resulted in a range of wastage in total energy (33–89 %). Dietary services and sanitation were inadequate to meet the international pattern recommended for nutrition care in hospitals. Most of physicians (83%) and dietitians (43%) were not satisfied with therapeutic diets served in hospitals. It appears that in-service training program as well as refreshing courses for dietitians could result in marked improvement in planning and formulation of therapeutic diet. In addition to a dietary manual accompanied by guidelines could result in an improved use of therapeutic diets within hospitals