Lagos: The West African Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) has urged the Federal Government to include hospital-based nutrition care in the National Nutrition Agenda. President of WASPEN, Dr. Teresa Pounds, made the call on Tuesday at a virtual news conference organised in partnership with the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) to mark Malnutrition Awareness Week.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the programme, themed ‘Nutrition Care Is a Team Effort,’ highlighted the need to strengthen nutrition screening, assessment, and intervention for patients receiving hospital care. Dr. Pounds emphasized the importance of integrating the full continuum of nutrition care into the National Nutrition Agenda, stressing the need to address nutrition within hospital settings and acute care.
Dr. Pounds noted that current government nutrition interventions have predominantly focused on food insecurity, children, maternal nutrition, and breastfeeding, while the issue of malnutrition among hospital patients has been overlooked. She pointed out the risk of patients being admitted already malnourished or becoming malnourished during their hospital stay, underscoring the necessity of providing routine nutrition screening, assessment, and intervention.
She also highlighted the importance of appropriate nutrition support tailored to patients’ needs, involving a multidisciplinary team that includes physicians, nurses, dieticians, nutritionists, pharmacists, laboratory professionals, community health workers, and hospital managers. WASPEN has facilitated the formation of about six multidisciplinary nutrition support teams in health institutions in Lagos, Abuja, and Asaba.
WASPEN’s activities include annual conferences, webinars, and partnerships with health institutions and pharmaceutical companies aimed at improving nutrition knowledge and addressing gaps in access to nutrition products. Dr. Pounds identified affordability and availability of nutrition products as significant challenges, especially amid rising inflation, and expressed WASPEN’s intent to participate in technical groups tackling hospital malnutrition.
While acknowledging the lack of specific Nigerian data linking hospital malnutrition with mortality, Dr. Pounds cited studies from other developing countries and the United States that associate malnutrition with poorer clinical outcomes and higher healthcare costs. WASPEN plans to enhance research on malnutrition in Nigeria to provide evidence that can guide improvements in patient care.
Dr. Pounds warned of the serious consequences of failing to address malnutrition, including increased mortality, poor wound healing, and prolonged recovery. She called for the extension of community nutrition efforts to hospital settings and commended the Federal Government’s initiatives, including Nutrition 774 and the development of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026-2035.
WASPEN’s Malnutrition Awareness Week will feature hospital sensitisation, clinical case presentations, hands-on training for healthcare professionals, and webinars focused on multidisciplinary nutrition care. Dr. Pounds urged stakeholders to ensure nutrition remains a staple of healthcare from prevention through treatment and recovery.
Dr. Pounds, who is based in the United States and specializes in critical care and nutritional support, cited her experience as the motivation for establishing WASPEN to enhance nutrition care in Nigeria. The organisation, which has operated in Nigeria for about six years, is working to expand its activities across West Africa, with plans to inaugurate its Ghana chapter in November.