Objectives: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of implementing a malnutrition screening tool "CIPA" at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (HUNSC), comparing the impact on health and the healthcare costs of hospitalised patients who are screened for malnutrition and of patients following standard clinical practice. Methodology: The study will consist of a controlled trial on patients admitted to the Internal Medicine and General and Digestive Surgery wards at the HUNSC. In both wards patients will be assigned to a control or to an intervention group. The control group will follow usual hospital clinical care, while the intervention group will be administered the screening tool "CIPA" for early detection of malnutrition cases and they will be treated according to the screening results. The following variables will be evaluated: length of stay in hospital, mortality, readmissions and in-hospital complications. Cost-effectiveness analysis will be undertaken measuring effectiveness by Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). Cost per patient will be measured by identifying health care resource utilisation, and the cost-effectiveness measure will be the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER). Investigators will calculate the incremental cost per QALY gained related to the intervention. This analysis will allow to quantify the costs (incurred and saved) related to the introduction of the malnutrition screening tool CIPA in the hospital context and to measure the health impact of screened patients.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SCREENING
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
823
The new nutritional screening tool termed CIPA includes Control of food Intake, Protein, and Anthropometry (CIPA) results positive when at least one of the following parameters is met: control of food intake for 72 h \<50%, serum albumin \<3 g/dl, body mass index \<18.5 kg/m2 or mid-upper arm circumference ≤ 22.5 cm.
Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Cost-effectiveness measured by incremental Cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER)
Time frame: up to 3 months after Hospital discharge time
incidence of mortality
Time frame: up to 3 months after Hospital discharge time
Quality of life measured by quality-adjusted life years (QALYs)
Time frame: up to 3 months after Hospital discharge time
mean length of stay (days)
Time frame: through study completion, an average of 13 days
incidence of readmissions
Time frame: up to 3 months after hospital discharge time
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