An interventional study of Dietitian-driven nutritional care model and Current practice nutritional care in Hospitalized Adult Patients, Inpatient Internal Medicine Patients and Haematologic Disease, sponsored by Gødstrup Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in Denmark. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-31.
Sponsored by Gødstrup Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether a new way of organising hospital nutrition care can improve outcomes for adults who are admitted to medical wards and are at risk of malnutrition.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
Researchers will compare the new nutrition care model with current practice. In current practice, nursing staff are mainly responsible for nutrition screening and nutrition care planning, while clinical dietitians are involved only when requested. In the new model, clinical dietitians are part of the ward team and take primary responsibility for identifying patients at nutritional risk, planning nutritional care, and providing nutritional treatment.
Participants will:
The study will be conducted on three medical wards at Gødstrup Hospital. All wards will start with current practice and will gradually change to the new nutrition care model during the study period. Researchers will compare outcomes before and after the new model is introduced.
Disease-related malnutrition is common among hospitalised medical patients and is associated with prolonged hospital stay, poorer clinical outcomes, reduced quality of life, and increased healthcare costs. Although evidence-based guidelines recommend systematic nutritional risk screening and nutritional treatment, implementation in routine clinical practice remains inconsistent. In many healthcare systems, including Denmark, responsibility for nutritional risk screening and nutritional care planning is primarily assigned to nursing staff, while clinical dietitians are typically involved only following referral.
The ADDUCE trial (A Dietitian-Driven Unified Nutritional Care Model) evaluates an alternative organisational model for delivering hospital nutritional care. The intervention is based on systematic integration of clinical dietitians into ward teams, with dietitians assuming primary responsibility for nutritional risk screening, nutritional assessment, nutritional care planning, and individualised nutritional treatment in close collaboration with nursing staff. Dietitians are present on the wards daily, participate in routine ward activities, and proactively identify patients requiring nutritional care rather than relying solely on referrals.
The study uses a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised controlled design conducted across three medical wards at Gødstrup Hospital, Denmark. All participating wards begin in the control condition, representing current clinical practice. The intervention is then introduced sequentially across wards in a randomised order until all wards have implemented the dietitian-driven model. This design allows each ward to contribute data under both control and intervention conditions while facilitating implementation at ward level.
Approximately 216 participants will be prospectively recruited and enrolled for detailed data collection, including nutritional intake, body weight, nutritional status, quality of life, patient satisfaction, and other clinical and patient-reported outcomes. In addition, routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period will be used to evaluate length of hospital stay and hospital readmissions. The enrolled cohort will provide detailed clinical information that supports adjusted analyses of secondary outcomes.
The purpose of the study is to determine whether a dietitian-driven model of nutritional care can improve patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency compared with current practice. The study also aims to evaluate whether earlier identification and treatment of patients at nutritional risk can contribute to more systematic nutritional care in hospital settings.
609 studies on the registry are indexed under Hematologic Diseases; 108 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 216 is above the median of 50 across 410 interventional studies indexed under Hematologic Diseases.
Browse Hematologic Diseases studies →Gødstrup Hospital is the lead sponsor of 24 studies on the registry; 14 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
For routinely collected hospital data:
Inclusion Criteria:
For the prospectively enrolled cohort:
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinical dietitians are integrated into the ward team and assume primary responsibility for nutritional risk screening, nutritional care planning, follow-up, and nutritional treatment. Nutritional care is delivered in close collaboration with nursing staff according to a predefined model of care.
Behavioral: Dietitian-driven nutritional care model
Nutritional risk screening and nutritional care are delivered according to existing ward procedures. Nursing staff are primarily responsible for nutritional risk screening and nutritional care, while clinical dietitians are involved following referral or consultation as needed.
Other: Current practice nutritional care
Clinical dietitians are integrated into the ward team and assume primary responsibility for systematic nutritional risk screening, nutritional assessment, nutritional care planning, follow-up, and nutritional treatment. Dietitians identify patients requiring nutritional care without waiting for referral and collaborate with nursing staff and other clinicians to provide coordinated nutritional care during hospital admission.
Nutritional care delivered according to existing ward procedures, with nursing staff primarily responsible for nutritional risk screening and nutritional care planning and clinical dietitians involved following referral or consultation.
Length of hospital stay
Length of hospital stay, defined as the time from hospital admission to hospital discharge. Length of stay will be calculated in hours from electronic health record time stamps and expressed in days (hours/24). Assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 5 days
Hospital re-admissions
Number of hospital readmissions after discharge from the index admission, assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: 30 days, 90 days
Days alive and out of hospital
Days alive and out of hospital after index admission. Assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: 30 days, 90 days
Mortality
Assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: 30 days, 90 days
Daily energy intake
Energy intake (kJ/day) expressed as a percentage of estimated energy requirements, assessed in the prospectively recruited cohort of approximately 216 enrolled participants. Energy intake will be estimated using a 24-hour dietary recall conducted as a structured interview with the participant, supported by data from the hospital electronic meal ordering system and the electronic administration records for enteral and parenteral nutrition.
Time frame: Day 1-3
Daily protein intake
Protein intake (g/day) expressed as a percentage of estimated protein requirements, assessed in the prospectively recruited cohort of approximately 216 enrolled participants. Protein intake will be estimated using a 24-hour dietary recall conducted as a structured interview with the participant, supported by data from the hospital electronic meal ordering system and the electronic administration records for enteral and parenteral nutrition.
Time frame: Day 1-3
Health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L)
Health-related quality of life assessed using the EQ-5D-5L in the prospectively recruited cohort of approximately 216 enrolled participants. The EQ-5D-5L is a self-administered questionnaire that measures health status across five dimensions and includes a health utility index score. Participants may receive assistance from the data collector if needed. Higher index scores indicate better health-related quality of life.
Time frame: Day 2, day 30
Nutritional risk
Nutritional risk assessed using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form (PG-SGA SF) in the prospectively recruited cohort of approximately 216 enrolled participants. The PG-SGA SF is completed by the participant as a self-administered questionnaire, with assistance from the data collector if required to facilitate completion. The questionnaire assesses weight history, food intake, nutrition impact symptoms, and functional capacity. Higher scores indicate greater nutritional risk.
Time frame: Day 2, day 30
Nutritional risk screening completed
Proportion of eligible patients who undergo nutritional risk screening during hospital admission, assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: Throughout study completion, an average of 5 days
Nutritional care plan documented
Proportion of eligible patients with a documented nutritional care plan during hospital admission, assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: Throughout study completion, an average of 5 days
Clinical dietitian involvement
Proportion of eligible patients with documented involvement of a clinical dietitian during hospital admission, assessed using routinely collected hospital data from all eligible patients admitted to participating wards during the study period.
Time frame: Throughout study completion, an average of 5 days
Plan to share: No — Due to GDPR
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Gødstrup Hospital