Essay Sample on Outcomes Associated With Nutrition Status

The outcome associated with nutrition status refers to the extent to which nutrition impact on the Quality of Life (QOL) of an individual. The topic tries to find out the correlation that exists between health outcomes and nutrition status. This topic is important as it can help to show whether nutrition status can be used to help individuals suffering from certain health conditions such as cancer to improve health. QOL refers to the standard of health happiness and comfort among a group or an individual. Malnutrition is a problem in society as it can affect the health outcome of individuals. It can negatively impact on the health outcome and quality of life of individuals, which can be even more intense among patients suffering from chronic diseases.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

RQ - What associations exist between nutrition status and health outcomes?

Article Search

The article was searched from American Direct database using the terms "Outcomes Associated with Nutrition Status" where 120024 items were found. The search was then filtered to articles that were published since 2012, giving a total of 5828. After streaming the search down to review materials, 974 articles were left. The search was further filtered only to include open achieve articled streaming numbers down to 54. By also filtering the search to include only nutrition and disease articles, six articles were left (Lis, Gupta, Lammersfeld, Markman, & Vashi, 2012). Five articles were outside ATI module, leaving the most relevant material for this module.

Article findings

The article addresses the issue by trying to find out how nutrition impact on the QOL among the patients who have cancer. The study used a systematic review of various studies that have been conducted in this area. The study reviewed research articles that were obtained from the MEDLINE database. After streaming down the articles, 26 items were found to be the most relevant to this study. Among the 26 articles that were included in this review, 24 of them concluded that nutrition status is very much connected to the QOL. It implies that those patients that were having a good state of nutrition had a good quality of life compared to those with the low status of diet despite being in a similar condition of cancer. However, one study supports the association of nutrition status and health only in high-risk patients. Among the 26 studies, only one of them failed to support the association of nutrition status and QOL among the patients who have cancer (Lis et al., 2012). The author hence concluded that nutrition can be used to help patients suffering from cancer improve their health.

Evidence for Practice

This evidence-based study shows that nutrition can be used to improve the health and status of people suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer. When people have cancer, they usually encounter a lot of health complications that make them unable to manage their condition. This affects their quality of life negatively. However, this study shows that nutrition is among the determinant of health condition among patients who have cancer. Those patients who practice an excellent nutrition habit are more capable of improving their health and quality of life while those who practice unfortunate nutrition habit make their condition more severe (Lis et al., 2012). Malnutrition will make them unable to manage their health.

The evidence from this study can be used to improve the practice in dealing with patients who have cancer. Improving the health or the quality of life among patients who have cancer has been a significant problem in health care. This is an area of considerable concern in the health sector bearing in mind that cancer has become a substantial challenge in society today. Medical treatment has been used as the sole practice to help the patients improve their health and quality of life. However, this study presents a crucial finding that nutrition can be used to supplement medical treatment in enhancing the quality of life.

The gap that has existed in helping the patient suffering from diseases such as cancer is that medical treatment has been adopted as the sole method of assisting patients in improving their quality of life. However, this evidence-based review shows that medicine alone cannot be used to enhance the QOL among the cancer patient to the expected level. As such, the use of nutrition status alongside the medication can help to bridge the gap that is left in helping to improve health conditions among patients of cancer and other chronic diseases. Introducing a program of guiding the patients of chronic diseases on how to improve their nutrition status can help bridge this gap.

Sharing of Evidence

Based on the importance of this topic in the improvement of health, it would be essential to share it with health practitioners and home-based care practitioners. This will help them to consider nutrition as a crucial aspect of helping them to consider nutrition as a vital aspect to help patients improve their health and quality of life. The best way of sharing such information is by using online resources. As such, the resources required include a website to create a blog where such information can be accessed globally. A social media platform is also a critical resource for sharing this kind of information. Approval of the nursing profession is vital before sharing this it as it will show the credibility of the data. Showing that the information has been reviewed and satisfied by Association Nursing Association will increase confidence among those viewing it.

Conclusion

The analysis in this essay aimed at finding out the association that exists between nutrition status and health outcome. Evidence-based review that summarizes 26 research findings was used to determine the correlation between the two. Twenty-four out of twenty-six articles that were reviewed show that nutrition status helps significantly in improving the health and QOL among cancer patients. This evidence can hence be used to help patients of chronic diseases such as cancer improves their health. It can help to bridge the gap where combining medication and nutrition will enhance the quality of life among chronic diseases patient. The recommendation is hence that health practitioners and caregivers consider guiding their patients on how to use nutrition status as a method of improving their quality of life.

References

Lis, C. G., Gupta, D., Lammersfeld, C. A., Markman, M., & Vashi, P. G. (2012). Role of nutritional status in predicting the quality of life outcomes in cancer-a systematic review of the epidemiological literature. Nutrition Journal, 11(1), 27. doi 10.1186/1475-2891-11-27