Evaluation of quality of life according to the nutritional status of the adult palliative patient: systematic review

Abstract

Objective: To review the scientific literature related to the quality of life according to the nutritional status of the adult palliative patient. Method: Critical analysis of the documents recovered by systematic review. The data were obtained from the direct consultation and access, on the Internet, in the next bibliographic databases in the area of health sciences: MEDLINE (via PubMed), The Cochrane Library, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL), Web of Science and Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences (LILACS). The use of the Descriptors “Quality of life”, “Nutritional status” and “Palliative care” were considered appropriate, using the filters: “Humans”, “Adults” and “Comparative Study” or “Clinical Trial”. Date of search: November 2016. Results: After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 4 studies were accepted for review and critical analysis. To evaluate the quality of articles selected for review using the CONSORT questionnaire, scores ranged from 11 to 20 with a maximum score of 25. Conclusions: The nutritional monitoring of the patients was directly related to the improvement of the nutritional status, and corresponded to the increase of the quality of life. It would be desirable to use specific and validated questionnaires to evaluate the quality of life according to the nutritional status that will allow to minimize any type of subjectivity of the patient. Future studies, with an adequate population, would be necessary to clarify the direct relationship between nutritional status and quality of life in palliative patients.

Keywords

• Calidad de vida
• Estado Nutricional
• Cuidados Paliativos