Nutritional status of cancer patients and its relationship to function in an inpatient rehabilitation setting

Background: Malnutrition is associated with prolonged hospitalization, lower survival rate, and various medical complications. However, little is known about malnutrition and its relationship with the functional status. We undertook this retrospective study to examine whether or not malnutrition affects rehabilitation outcome in patients who had undergone cancer rehabilitation. Methods: We conducted a review of the charts of 30 consecutive cancer patients who had been admitted to the inpatient rehabilitation unit in a tertiary cancer center, from the beginning of March 2001 to the end of April 2001. Results: The patients' mean rehabilitation stay was 9 days and their mean age was 58 years (range 22-86 years). On rehabilitation admission, 15 of the patients (50%) had a below normal prealbumin (<18 mg/dl) level (95% confidence interval 31-69%), and on discharge 10 of the patients (33%) had a below normal prealbumin level (95% CI 17-54%). The serum prealbumin concentration level correlated with motor functional independence measure scores on admission. After inpatient rehabilitation, statistically significant gains in functional independence measure scores (P<0.0001) were obtained in patients with below normal admission prealbumin, as well as in those whose prealbumin levels were within the normal range; no statistically significant difference was found in functional gain between these two groups. Conclusion: Our study showed that a large number of cancer rehabilitation patients had malnutrition. Nevertheless, functional gain was achieved in all patients after rehabilitation, whether or not malnutrition was present. We conclude that malnourished patients should still be considered candidates for rehabilitation.