Perfil epidemiológico e nutricional de usuários de nutrição enteral domiciliar.

Nutritional therapy in home environment contributes to the recovery of health status of patients and presents lower cost when compared to hospital enteral nutrition. However, in clinical practice, patients and their families have difficulties to perform procedures related to enteral nutrition. This study aimed to identify the epidemiological and nutritional profiles of enteral nutrition users. This is a cross-sectional study with questionnaires applied and anthropometric measurements for the understanding of socioeconomic profile, nutritional and variables associated with the use of this therapeutic modality. Only 31.6 % of users leave the hospital with counter-conference instruments. The diseases of prevalent base were neurological disorders (63%). The average usage time of therapy was 28 weeks with predominant use (53%) of industrialized formulations provided by the municipality (37%). Through the application of the Subjective Global Assessment, 66.7% of the subjects were classified as moderately malnourished. Results point to the need for effective integration between different levels of health care and the need of further studies on the profile of home enteral nutrition in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]