The Frequency of Malnutrition in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is one of the most common comorbidities of diabetes mellitus (DM) whose frequency is rapidly increasing nowadays. Although obesity caused by excessive and unbalanced nutrition often accompanies diabetes; malnutrition is another complication of diabetes. This study was conducted to investigate the frequency of malnutrition in individuals with diabetes. METHOD: This study is a cross-sectional study. The patients with type 2 diabetes followed up in the diabetes outpatient clinic of a university hospital between February and March 2018 were included in the study. Anthropometric measurements of the patients and “Nutritional Risk Screening-2002” (NRS-2002) scores were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 222 (F:132 59.4%) patients were included in the study. When two groups with higher NRS (≥3) and lower NRS (<3) scores less than 3 were compared, any significant difference was not detected between two groups in terms of age, waist circumference and HbA1c values. Only BMI was found to be lower in the group with malnutrition risk (p:0.030). When the patients were evaluated in terms of diabetes treatments and risk of malnutrition, any significant intergroup difference was not found (p:0.847). CONCLUSION: It was found that there is a risk of malnutrition in one of every seven diabetics with a high body mass index who were being followed up in the diabetes outpatient clinic.