The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of nutritional risk and examine nutritional care practices in the hospitalized elderly at one large university hospital in Norway.

A cross-sectional study was designed and carried out at a university hospital in Norway. The study was developed by a collegium at a nursing bachelor education program in a multidisciplinary collaboration with representatives from the university hospital and other experts. Data on nutritional risk and nutritional care practices of elderly patients were collected by 173 second year nursing students at the university college in question who were undergoing their acute and clinical care practice studies on 20 wards at the university hospital. Nine nutritional screening days were conducted in the academic years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. On the screening days the students filled in the questionnaire for each patient, including questions about age, gender, length of hospital stay, normal weight in recent months, weight, height, BMI, nutritional risk and nutritional care practices. The students measured weight and height whenever possible, and screened the patients for nutritional risk. Data were collected by using a stratified sampling technique along with adequate power calculations to improve the representativeness of the sample. The researchers received anonymously completed questionnaires and screening forms from the students and never met the patients.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All elderly (≥70 yrs) patients admitted on the included wards at 08.00 am on the screening days were asked to participate.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Terminal patients (assumed short-lived, <1 month), patients diagnosed with dementia and patients whom the ward staff found unfit to participate were excluded.

Patients were recruited from a large University hospital in Norway. The university hospital covers about 10% of the Norwegian population, providing healthcare services for approximately half a million people living in urban and rural municipalities. The patient population is thus heterogenic with respect to ethnicity and socioeconomic factors. All somatic wards having nursing students in acute care clinical studies in autumn 2011 were included in the study. The study sample comprised 14 of 16 medical and surgical somatic wards. Additionally, one rehabilitation ward, one specialized short time unit, one emergency medicine ward, and one cardio-monitoring ward were included.

Eligible patients were selected by the nursing students in cooperation with the ward nursing staff.