Sex differences in clinical presentation, treatment response, and side effects of nutritional therapy among patients at nutritional risk: a secondary analysis of the randomized clinical trial EFFORT

Considering sex-specific factors has become an increasingly recognized area for research and practice, in the field of clinical nutrition, there is insufficient evidence regarding differences in clinical presentation, treatment response, and side effects of nutritional therapy among female and male patients. We hypothesized that the clinical presentation, response to nutritional therapy, and side effects from the intervention would differ in the two sexes. This secondary analysis investigated differences among female and male patients at risk for malnutrition regarding initial presentation, clinical outcomes, and treatment response in patients included in the Effect of Early Nutritional Support on Frailty, Functional Outcomes, and Recovery of Malnourished Medical Inpatients Trial (EFFORT), a randomized controlled trial comparing individualized nutritional support to usual care. Of 2028 patients included in the trial, 964 were females and 1064 were males. The nutritional history and clinical presentation of female patients was different: they consumed less food and had a greater loss of appetite than the male population. Male patients had higher risk for mortality at 180 d [27% compared with 19%; adjusted hazards ratio (HR): 1.35; 95% CI: 1.12, 1.63] and further adverse clinical outcomes. However, there was no difference in the effect of nutritional support on mortality among female and male patients (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.45, 1.27, compared with HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.54, 1.21, respectively; P-interaction = 0.939). Results of this multicenter randomized trial suggest that multimorbid female inpatients have a different clinical presentation and are more prone to loss of appetite and reduced daily dietary intake than male inpatients. Importantly, the favorable response to nutritional interventions was similar in both sexes.
This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02517476.