Association Between the Dietary Practices and the Nutrition Status of Adult Cancer Outpatients at Nyeri County Referral Hospital, Kenya; A Cross Sectional Survey

The global attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 target 3.4 has been slow, with a notable increase in the cancer burden. Besides the normal cancer pathogenesis, 5-10% of the total cancer cases develop as a result of sub-optimal diets and other lifestyle factors and therefore, consuming a healthy diet in adequate amounts helps in prevention of the tumor itself and cancer related malnutrition. Limited evidence exists on the link between dietary practices and the nutrition status of cancer patients, and this study sought to fill this gap using analytical cross-sectional study design. Data was collected using a 24-hour recall, Food Frequency Questionnaire and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. The dietary patterns identified from the research were, excessive consumption of foods from the starchy foods and the fats category (65.1%) with less than half (41.9%) of the respondents not attaining the minimum daily requirements of the fruit’s servings recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). The mean energy intake of the 172 respondents was below the ESPEN Clinical guidelines recommendations. More than half (51.7%) of the respondents were at a high risk of developing malnutrition and there was a statistically significant difference between individual energy intake and the nutrition status (P<0.05) rejecting the null hypothesis that there is no significant association between the energy intake and the risk of being malnourished. Linear regression r (0.41) showed a significant (P<0.05) weak positive association between a person’s diet intake and the malnutrition risk. The analysis shows that 16.7% of the overall risk of malnutrition can be explained by the dietary intake. Assessing the dietary practices of the cancer patients, screening them for malnutrition risk and enhancing nutrition education and counselling is key in improving therapeutic care of cancer patients. A study to reveal the knowledge and attitudes of the cancer patients towards these dietary practices would make a very significant contribution to the therapeutic care of the cancer patients.