Dietary intake, food composition and nutritional status of chronic wound patients attending a health care centre in Côte d’Ivoire

Background: Nutrition plays a critical role in immune function and recovery from disease. Poor dietary intake and inadequate nutritional adjustment can impair healing in patients with chronic wounds, particularly in rural settings where malnutrition, parasitic infections, and unbalanced diets are common. Objective: To assess the nutritional status, dietary habits, and food composition of chronic wound patients (CWPs) at the time of recruitment in a wound management unit in Côte d’Ivoire. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from 2019 to 2020, including 68 CWPs from Taabo General Hospital. Nutritional assessment included anthropometry, haemoglobin and serum albumin measurements, a 24-hour dietary recall, food frequency questionnaire, dietary diversity score, and food composition analysis. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between nutritional status, haemoglobin, age, sex, wound type, and wound size (significance: p < 0.05). Results: Diets were dominated by starchy foods (67%), protein sources (47%), vegetables (42%), and fruits (5%), with a low mean dietary diversity score (2.39 ± 3.32). Children (<15 years) had lower BMI and haemoglobin levels than adults (10.8 vs 11.5 g/dL, p = 0.03). Nutritional status was significantly associated with wound size (p < 0.0003), and haemoglobin level was associated with wound aetiology. Poor nutritional status was associated with larger wounds in 73% of patients (p = 0.01). Conclusion: CWPs exhibited malnutrition due to low intake of protein, fruits, and vegetables, leading to micronutrient deficiencies and larger wound size at recruitment. Children were particularly vulnerable. Integrating dietary counselling, nutritional support, and assessment into wound care services may improve healing outcomes and reduce infection risk.