知っておきたいリハビリテーション栄養の基本

Many hospitalized patients undergoing rehabilitation are often complicated by malnutrition and sarcopenia, which hinder their rehabilitation. Since nutritional management is essential to improve these conditions, the concept of “rehabilitation nutrition” has been proposed in recent clinical practice. The rehabilitation nutrition requires evaluation by a holistic assessment based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health （ICF）, evaluation of the presence of nutritional disorders, sarcopenia, and excess or deficiency in nutrient intake, diagnosis of their cause, and setting appropriate intervention goals, and defined as “nutrition care management in consideration of rehabilitation” and “rehabilitation in consideration of nutrition” to improve nutritional status, sarcopenia, nutrient intake, and frailty of the disabled and frail elderly to maximize function, activity, participation, and quality of life. To effectively implement rehabilitation nutrition, the rehabilitation nutrition care process consisting of five steps is useful, and it is recommended that this cycle be implemented through collaboration among multiple professions. The recently developed Japanese clinical practice guidelines for rehabilitation nutrition in cerebrovascular disease, hip fracture femur fracture, cancer, and acute illness. The number of elderly patients undergoing rehabilitation is expected to increase, which will inevitably increase the demand for rehabilitative nutrition. In order to establish rehabilitation nutrition in society, promotion of high-quality research as well as the dissemination of rehabilitation nutrition will be essential in the future.