Do acute hospitalised patients in Australia have a different body mass index to the general Australian population: a point prevalence study?

Conclusions Despite health warnings about the direct relationship between illness and being overweight or obese, the results of the present study reveal fewer hospitalised patients in these BMI categories and more underweight patients than in the non-hospitalised general Australian population. Being overweight or obese may offer some protection against hospitalisation, but there is a point where the deleterious effect of obesity results in more extremely obese individuals being hospitalised than the proportion represented in the general population.What is known about the topic? Although there is significant current published data relating to general Australian population BMI, there is little pertaining specifically to the hospitalised population. Accordingly, although we know that as an affluent Western country we are seeing growing rates of overweight and obese people and relatively few underweight or undernourished people in the general population, we do not know whether these trends are mirrored or magnified in those who are sick in hospital. We also know that although caring for obese patients carries a significant burden, there is the suggestion in some healthcare literature of an 'obesity paradox', whereby in certain disease states being overweight actually decreases mortality and promotes a faster recovery from illness compared with underweight people, who have poorer outcomes.What does this paper add? This paper is the first of its kind to actually measure and calcula...
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research