Changes in serum albumin concentrations over 7 days in medical inpatients with and without nutritional support. A secondary post-hoc analysis of a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Serum albumin concentrations are frequently used to monitor nutritional therapy in the hospital setting but supporting studies are largely lacking. Within this secondary analysis of a randomized nutritional trial (EFFORT), we assessed whether nutritional support affects short-term changes in serum albumin concentrations and whether an increase in albumin concentration has prognostic implications regarding clinical outcome and response to treatment.

Methods: We analyzed patients with available serum albumin concentrations at baseline and day 7 included in EFFORT, a Swiss-wide multicenter randomized clinical trial that compared individualized nutritional therapy with usual hospital food (control group).