A worldwide campaign by clinical nutrition societies to raise awareness of patients’ rights to nutritional care
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA, June 3, 2021: Worldwide societies for clinical nutrition are announcing today a promotional campaign that advocates for all patients to have access to food and evidence-based artificially administered nutrition and hydration (AANH). The campaign is supported by the simultaneous publication of a major position paper in the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition’s Nutrition in Clinical Practice and the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism’s Clinical Nutrition.
Disease-related malnutrition (DRM) is a highly prevalent form of malnutrition in all countries, despite the fact that evidence-based AANH has progressed sufficiently to permit sick people to be adequately nourished. To be able to transform this reality, an international working group, representing societies from five continents, is advocating that “All patients have the right to nutritional care” and the human rights-based approach should be incorporated into standard clinical nutrition practice.
The campaign “Nutritional Care is a Human Right” aims at promoting the recognition that:
- Nutritional care is intrinsically linked to the Right to Food and the Right to Health.
- Nutritional care implies an ethical commitment to our patients to treat DRM.
- To overcome DRM associated morbidity and mortality, the hospitalized patient must have access to:
-
Screening for nutritional status, diagnosis of risk and nutritional assessment
- Optimal and timely evidence-based AANH
- Recognition that “nutritional care is a human right” contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) “Hunger Zero” achieved by including DRM among other types of malnutrition addressed by this goal.
This campaign aims to raise awareness of the general public, patients, health care professionals and governmental policymakers that the right to nutritional care should be a goal of state policies and programs, regardless of their economic, social, cultural, religious or political background.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Diana Cardenas
International Working Group for
Patients’ Rights to Nutritional Care
[email protected]
Stephanie Lee
American Society for
Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
[email protected]
About International Working Group for Patients’ Rights to Nutritional Care
The working group of experts in human rights and in clinical nutrition includes representatives of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN), Latin American Federation of Nutritional Therapy, Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (FELANPE), Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Society of Asia (PENSA) and the West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN). The campaign comes at a crucial moment when the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that nutritional status appears to be a relevant factor influencing patient outcomes, raising concerns among stakeholders about the consequences of the lack of nutritional care access on the efficiency and financial sustainability of their healthcare systems.
About ASPEN
The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) is dedicated to improving patient care by advancing the science and practice of clinical nutrition and metabolism. Founded in 1976, ASPEN is an interdisciplinary organization whose members are involved in the provision of clinical nutrition therapies, including parenteral and enteral nutrition. With more than 6,000 members from around the world, ASPEN is a community of dietitians, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, scientists, students, and other health professionals from every facet of nutrition support clinical practice, research, and education. For more information, visit www.nutritioncare.org.