A TEAM of Southampton researchers has been awarded £40,000 to advise on the best form of nutrition for malnourished hip fracture patients.

The academics, from the city's university, received the grant from the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) to help patients at Southampton General Hospital.

Led by Dr Rebecca Stratton, senior research fellow at the university's Institute of Human Nutrition, the team will use a malnutrition universal screening tool (MUST) to routinely screen patients admitted to the hospital with broken hips, to see if they are malnourished. Dr Stratton became involved in the research following the publication of her co-authored book called Disease-related malnutrition: An evidence-based approach to treatment, and her involvement in the Malnutrition Advisory Group of Bapen.

The team will run a trial with 50 malnourished patients and compare whether they respond to a diet of hospital food and high-energy snacks or hospital food and oral sip-feed supplements. The aim of the research is to test the hypotheses that food snacks suppress appetite and food intake to a greater degree than liquid supplements and are less likely to produce functional and clinical benefits.

Patients' health, appetite, food intake, muscle strength and rehabilitation time will be monitored during their time in hospital.

At the end of the one-year project the research team will advise which form of nutrition was the most effective.Dr Stratton said: "The University of Southampton is leading the way with the first trial of MUST.

"This is also the first time that anyone has ever compared the nutritional benefits of sip-feed supplements over high-energy snacks in orthopaedic patients. We believe that the results will enable us to advise more effectively on treatment of malnutrition."