• E-ISSN: 2348-1064
  • Follow us

Journal of Nutrition Research
An official journal of IAPEN India association

Article

A Cross Sectional Study to Assess the Nutritional Status of Cancer Patients in A Tertiary Care Facility in Meghalaya, Northeast India
  • VIEWS 363
  • PDF 101

Journal of Nutrition Research

DOI: 10.55289/jnutres/v12i1_23.10

Year: 2024, Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 39-46

Original Article

A Cross Sectional Study to Assess the Nutritional Status of Cancer Patients in A Tertiary Care Facility in Meghalaya, Northeast India

Balasara Shisha Lyngdoh 1 , Ophelia Mary Kharmujai 2 , Caleb Harris​ ✉ 3 , Vikas Jagtap 4 , Herman Nadon 5 , Gwyneth Pde 1

1 Assistant Dietician, Dietary Unit, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
2 Public Health Nursing Officer, Department of Community Medicine, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
3 Additional Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
4 Additional Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
5 Clinical Trial Coordinator, Department of Surgical Oncology, NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
 
Corresponding author ✉: [email protected]

Received Date:22 August 2023, Accepted Date:15 April 2024, Published Date:18 June 2024

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Patients with cancer often have poor nutritional status, which further deteriorates as the disease progresses. Systematic assessment of the nutritional status is essential to determine the nature of intervention required for each individual. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care centre in Meghalaya, North East, India with the primary objective of assessing the nutritional status of cancer patients. The secondary objectives were to assess the diet pattern of cancer patients and the nutritional intervention, which was provided as per the nutritional status. A total of 100 patients who consented to participate were selected consecutively for this study and were interviewed by the first author. Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PGSGA) parameters and other parameters like anthropometry, biochemical values and dietary pattern to assess the nutritional status were used. Majority of them (60%) had Gastrointestinal cancer. The nutritional status of the participants, using the PG-SGA Global Assessment Categories, indicated that 84% of the participants were suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition. An analysis of the weight loss showed that 38% of the participants had a weight loss of 20% or greater in the previous 6 months. The diet pattern of the participants clearly indicated a decrease in the frequency of consumption of dietary fibre derived from wholegrains, whole grams and fruits. The study findings also revealed that 75% of the participants had an altered food intake pattern. As per the PGSGA parameter of symptoms which have an impact on nutritional intake, 40% of the participants were not feeling up to most things, but in bed or chair less than half a day. Based on these data regarding the food intake, nutritional related symptoms and the rate of activity, it clearly indicates that most of the participants were malnourished. Nutritional intervention should be provided to all cancer patients once they are diagnosed in order to prevent the severity of malnutrition.

Keywords

Nutritional Status in Cancer, Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment, Diet pattern, Northeast India, Malnutrition in cancer

References

  1. Ferlay J, Colombet M, Soerjomataram I, Parkin DM, Piñeros M, Znaor A, et al. Cancer statistics for the year 2020: An overview. International Journal of Cancer. 2021;149(4):778–789. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33588
  2. Smith RD, Mallath MK. History of the Growing Burden of Cancer in India: From Antiquity to the 21st Century. Journal of Global Oncology. 2019;(5) 1–15. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1200/jgo.19.00048
  3. Ngaihte P, Zomawia E, Kaushik I. Cancer in the NorthEast India: Where we are and what needs to be done? Indian Journal of Public Health. 2019;63(3):251. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijph.ijph_323_18
  4. Harris C, Das G, Mukherjee P. Development of Cancer Care in Northeast India. Indian Journal of Surgical Oncology. 2022;13(S1):61–66. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13193-022-01557-z
  5. Ryan AM, Power DG, Daly L, Cushen SJ, Bhuachalla ĒN, Prado CM. Cancer-associated malnutrition, cachexia and sarcopenia: the skeleton in the hospital closet 40 years later. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2016;75(2):199–211. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002966511500419x
  7. Mantzorou M, Koutelidakis A, Theocharis S, Giaginis C. Clinical Value of Nutritional Status in Cancer: What is its Impact and how it Affects Disease Progression and Prognosis? Nutrition and Cancer. 2017;69(8):1151–1176. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01635581.2017.1367947
  8. Ravasco P. Nutrition in Cancer Patients. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2019;8(8):1–13. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm8081211
  10. Haran PH, Rivas DA, Fielding RA. Role and potential mechanisms of anabolic resistance in sarcopenia. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle. 2012;3(3):157–162. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13539-012-0068-4
  11. Cano N, Fiaccadori E, Tesinsky P, Toigo G, Druml W, Kuhlmann M, et al. ESPEN Guidelines on Enteral Nutrition: Adult Renal Failure. Clinical Nutrition. 2006;25(2):295–310. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2006.01.023
  13. Andreoli A, Lorenzo AD, Cadeddu F, Iacopino L, Grande M. New trends in nutritional status assessment of cancer patients. 2011. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21744742/
  14. Winter A, MacAdams J, Chevalier S. Normal protein anabolic response to hyperaminoacidemia in insulin-resistant patients with lung cancer cachexia. Clinical Nutrition. 2012;31(5):765–773. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2012.05.003
  16. Bauer J, Capra S, Ferguson M. Use of the scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) as a nutrition assessment tool in patients with cancer. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2002;56(8):779–785. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601412
  17. Girdhar S, Sharma S, Chaudhary A, Bansal P, Satija M. An epidemiological study of overweight and obesity among women in an Urban area of North India. Indian Journal of Community Medicine. 2016;41(2):154. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.173492
  18. Khan DSA, Das JK, Zareen S, Lassi ZS, Salman A, Raashid M, et al. Nutritional Status and Dietary Intake of School-Age Children and Early Adolescents: Systematic Review in a Developing Country and Lessons for the Global Perspective. Frontiers in Nutrition. 2022;8:1–18. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.739447
  19. Sharma D, Kannan R, Tapkire R, Nath S. Evaluation of Nutritional Status of Cancer Patients during Treatment by Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment: a Hospital-Based Study. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention. 2016;16(18):8173–8176. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.18.8173
  20. Santarpia L, Contaldo F, Pasanisi F. Nutritional screening and early treatment of malnutrition in cancer patients. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle. 2011;2(1):27–35. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21475618/
  22. Song M, Wu K, Meyerhardt JA, Ogino S, Wang M, Fuchs CS, et al. Fiber Intake and Survival After Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis. JAMA Oncology. 2018;4(1):71. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2017.3684
  23. P GC, Varghese RM. Antioxidants in fighting cancer- Development of antioxidant rich plant food products. (pp. 7-11) St. Joseph’s college for women, Alappuzha. International E - Publication. 2014.
  24. Tamakoshi A, Nakamura K, Ukawa S, Okada E, Hirata M, Nagai A, et al. Characteristics and prognosis of Japanese colorectal cancer patients: The BioBank Japan Project. Journal of Epidemiology. 2017;27(3):S36–S42. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.je.2016.12.004
  25. Grosso G, Bella F, Godos J, Sciacca S, Rio DD, Ray S, et al. Possible role of diet in cancer: systematic review and multiple meta-analyses of dietary patterns, lifestyle factors, and cancer risk. Nutrition Reviews. 2017;75(6):405–419. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nux012
  27. Alejandro WS, Sofia VO, Pablo WA. Validation of the Broca index as the most practical method to calculate the ideal body weight. Journal of Clinical Investigation and Studies. 2018;1(1):1–4. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.15761/jcis.1000105
  28. Arends J, Bachmann P, Baracos V, Barthelemy N, Bertz H, Bozzetti F, et al. ESPEN guidelines on nutrition in cancer patients. Clinical Nutrition. 2017;36(1):11–48. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2016.07.015
  30. Bhattacharjee A, Bahar I, Saikia A. Nutritional assessment of patients with head and neck cancer in North-East India and dietary intervention. Indian Journal of Palliative Care. 2015;21(3):289. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0973-1075.164889

Copyright

© This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Published By India Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (IAPEN)

  • 19 June 2024

Year: 2024, Volume: 12, Issue: 1


More articles

DON'T MISS OUT!

Subscribe now for latest articles and news.