Comparison of 4 Nutritional Screening Tools to Detect Nutritional Risk in Hospitalized Patients. A Multicentre Study

Background The prevalence of malnutrition in hospitals is high. No nutritional screening tool is considered the gold standard for identifying nutritional risk. The aims of this study were to evaluate nutritional risk in hospitalized patients using 4 nutritional screening tools. Methods Four nutritional screening tools were evaluated: Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Patients were assessed within the first 36 hours after hospital admission. Date of admission, diagnosis, complications, and date of discharge were collected. To compare the tools, the results were reorganized into: patients at risk and patients with a good nutritional status. Statistical analysis included the χ2 test and the κ statistic. Results The study sample comprised 400 patients (159 F, 241 M), mean age 67.3 (16.1) years. The prevalence of patients at nutritional risk with the NRS-2002, MUST, SGA, and MNA was 34.5%, 31.5%, 35.3%, and 58.5%, respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed between the 4 nutritional screening tools (p