Research

Mixed

Early oral/enteral nutritional support reduces case fatality (death) in hospital patients.

Ensure hospitals screen all patients for malnutrition upon admission. Providing adequate nutrition, especially early, significantly reduces the risk of death.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
a meta-analysis of oral/enteral nutritional support trials, in more than 2000 patients of all types, showed that the pooled odds ratio for death by the end of scheduled follow up showed a reduced case fatality in treatment compared with control groups of 0.66 (0.48–0.91; 2p,0.01).
Mike Stroud et al. · Gut · 2003

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of >2000 patients (Grade A evidence).

Source

Guidelines for enteral feeding in adult hospital patients

Mike Stroud et al. · Gut · 2003

DOI 10.1136/gut.52.suppl_7.vii1

clinical_guidelineCited 410×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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