Which term refers to a patient with poor nutritional status and wasting?

• A. Malnourished
• B. Cachectic
• C. Debilitated
• D. Emaciated

Answer: (B)

Cachexia is a wasting syndrome that occurs with chronic illness, where there is involuntary weight loss and loss of lean body mass driven by metabolic changes and inflammation. This makes it the best fit for describing a patient with poor nutritional status and wasting, because it captures not just low intake but an active catabolic state affecting muscles. Malnourished describes general undernutrition without necessarily the disease-driven wasting; emaciated emphasizes extreme thinness in appearance but doesn’t specifically denote the underlying wasting process; debilitated means overall weakness but doesn’t specify the characteristic wasting with metabolic changes.