Dietary dispensing in a third level hospital of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands, Spain

Introduction: 90% of the food demand offered in a hospital corresponds to oral nutrition. However, only few studies evaluate the diets prescribed in hospitals. Objective: To describe the characteristics of the total of diets dispensed to hospitalized patients in a tertiary hospital. Material and Methods: The total of the diets prescribed in our hospital center during computerization of the medical histories (2003-2015) was detailed in the framework of a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The study variables consisted of the type of diet and the year. The SPSS 19.0 program was used for analysis. Results: In the course of the study, 12,189,344.00 diets were prescribed. Prescriptions of the following types of diet were: absolute fasting (931,457; 7.64%), basal (3,335,219; 27.36%), basal pediatric (493,476; 4.05%), metabolic 1,000kcal (40,109; 0.33%), metabolic 1,500kcal (1,738,229; 14.26%), metabolic 2,000kcal (1,157,076; 9.49%), metabolic 3,000kcal (3,718; 0.03%), diet of progression or post-surgery (861,238; 7.07%), electric blender (1,145,400; 9.40%), pediatric electric blender (250,820; 2.06%); soft (633,997; 5.20%), easy digestion (236,835; 1.94%), astringent (167,943; 1.38%), biliopancreatic protection (573,026; 4.70%), nephrologic (108,674; 0.89%), low bacterial load (70,526; 0.58%), gluten-free (16,587; 0.14%), fiber-rich (156,234; 1.28%), all types of vegetarian (75,851; 0.62%), and special diets (12,910; 0.11%). Conclusions: Most of the diets prescribed in our center are therapeutic. Within this group, metabolic diets constitute the most frequently prescribed ones. However, the 1,500kcal diet should not be the reference metabolic diet because nutritional requirements of the patients are high. This prescription must be corrected. Moreover, the hospital dietary program should be scaled down.