Can the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA®) be used as a nutrition evaluation tool for subacute inpatients over an average length of stay?

OBJECTIVEThe prevalence of malnutrition in subacute inpatient settings has been reported to be 30-50%. While there are a number of nutrition evaluation tools which have been validated to diagnose malnutrition, the use of a validated nutrition evaluation tool to measure changes in nutritional status during an average length of stay for a subacute inpatient has not yet been tested. This study aims to determine the potential of the full MNA (full Mini Nutritional Assessment) and MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form) scores to measure change in nutritional status over an average subacute inpatient stay (21 days).DESIGNA prospective observational study.SETTINGThe study was performed in three Rehabilitation and Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) wards of the Kingston Centre, Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia.PARTICIPANTSAll patients ≥65 years admitted to these wards with an expected length of stay of at least 14 days were considered for inclusion in this study.MEASUREMENTSNutritional status was assessed on admission using the full MNA as part of usual dietetic care and patients were provided with nutrition intervention/diet therapy based on full MNA classification. Full MNA score (0-30), MNA score (0-14), anthropometry (weight and height) and nutritional biochemistry (serum albumin, transthyretin and C-reactive protein) were compared between admission and day 20.5 ± 2.4.RESULTSMean age (± SD) of 83 ± 7 years, n=114. For those patients diagnosed at risk of malnutrition or malnourished (n=103), there were significant increases in full MNA score (1.8 ± 2.4, p