Association between reduced food intake and hospital discharge to home in Chinese adults: A cross‐sectional nutritionDay survey study
Bei Zhou, Yupeng Zhang, Xuejin Gao, Qin Pan, Wei Ma, Tingting Gao, Chulin Chen, Sitong Liu, Ruting Shen, Li Zhang, Xinying Wang,Abstract
Background
Reduced food intake is a major contributor to malnutrition, but validated thresholds remain uncertain. Our study aimed to examine the associations of preceding‐week food intake and nutritionDay food intake with home discharge.
Methods
We conducted a cross‐sectional survey study using data from 10,368 Chinese adult inpatients participating in the nutritionDay initiative from 2010 to 2024. Cox proportional hazards regression and Kaplan‐Meier survival analyses were used to examine associations between reduced food intake and home discharge within 30 days after nutritionDay.
Results
Preceding‐week food intake ≤50% was associated with a lower probability of home discharge and prolonged median length of stay after nutritionDay compared with preceding‐week intake > 50%, particularly among patients with nutritionDay intake ≤25% (9 vs. 7 days, P < 0.001) or who were forbidden to eat (11 vs. 7 days, P < 0.001). Additionally, nutritionDay food intake ≤25% was associated with a lower discharge probability and a longer median length of stay after nutritionDay among patients with preceding‐week intake >50% (HR 0.93, 95% CI [0.87–0.98], P = 0.01; 7 vs. 6 days, P < 0.001) and ≤ 50% (HR 0.86, 95% CI [0.76–0.98], P = 0.03; 9 vs. 6 days, P < 0.001).
Conclusion
Preceding‐week food intake ≤ 50% and nutritionDay food intake ≤25% were each associated with a lower likelihood of home discharge. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing recent dietary history when implementing fasting protocols, particularly for patients with poor preceding‐week intake or patients prohibited from eating on nutritionDay.