Patients in Dubai hospitals 
happy with special diets

Patients in Dubai hospitals are satisfied with the tailor-made diets during their stay, a survey has found.

Nutrition Day Worldwide recently published the results of a cross-sectional audit on the status of nutrition across hospitals in 49 countries.

Survey results > 49% ofall in-patients consume a special diet provided while internationally 24% consume special diets provided by the hospital > 52% ofthe in-patients in DHA hospitals consume food provided by the hospital while internationally 42% consume food provided by hospitals > Only 2%of the patients have a quarter of the meal and leave it while internationally 12% have only a quarter of the meal provided to them > 65% ofthe patients in DHA hospitals consume regular food while 38% are provided a specific diet. Abroad, 25% are on a prescribed diet

The survey included interviews of 98,490 patients that were conducted through questionnaires in over 30 languages.

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) hospitals — Rashid, Latifa and Dubai — were part of the nutritional audit that was conducted across 3,215 worldwide hospital wards. From Dubai, 416 patients across 16 units of DHA hospitals took part.

Wafa Ayesh, director of clinical nutrition at the DHA, said that diets were tailor-made for all in-patient hospital stays keeping in mind their health condition.

“As we are dealing with people who are suffering from ailments, in many cases we find that there is a high prevalence of weight loss and reduced intake of nutrition before admission so we have to take special care about their nutritional status to improve their health.”

Essa Al Maidoor, DHA Director-General, said, “It is a known fact that nutrition and exercise are important pillars for good health. However, within a hospital setting, the importance of nutrition gets further elevated.”

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com