The effectiveness of tailored dietary counselling in treating malnutrition in Vietnamese COPD outpatients: A randomised controlled trial

Abstract

This research is one of the first trials to evaluate the effectiveness of tailored nutritional counselling in treating malnutrition in outpatients with COPD. Nearly three-quarters of outpatients in Vietnam were identified with malnutrition. This research identified that malnutrition in COPD patients was associated with adverse health outcomes and that tailored nutritional counselling could modify malnutrition status by changing eating behaviours and dietary intake of patients. It emphasized the important role of dietitians in developing appropriate food-based strategies tailored to individual circumstances to promote weight gain, prevent weight loss, improve nutritional status, functional outcomes, and quality of life for COPD patients. While undertaken in Vietnam, the results may be applicable globally with implications of clinical nutrition practice.