Newsletter

[ Vol. 11 No. 3 ] (September - December 2010 )
Developing effective nutrition screening tool for malnutrition patients

Yeh Na Chon¹, Ji Sun Lee¹, Sook Park¹, Myung Duk Lee^2
1Department of Nutrition, Nutrition Support Team, Seoul St Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
²Department of Surgery, Nutrition Support Team, Seoul St Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea 

OBJECTIVES
For the effective management of malnourished hospitalized patients, early identification as well as early nutritional intervention is essential from the beginning. JCAHO guidelines recommend the initial accomplishment of nutritional screening within 24 hours of admission, if the patient is in malnutrition. Few valid malnutrition screening tools are available in Korea. This study was to develop a valid nutrition screening tool applicable in this institution.

METHODS
A total of 304 patients, who had been admitted between April 21 and April 25, 2008 were included in this study. Nutritional status was assessed and classified by the criteria of NRS-2002 (Nutrition Risk Screening-2002 by ESPEN) as the gold standard for defining malnutrition. All the data of personal interview, nutritional information of weight loss, food intake, the severity of disease, the age, serum albumin, total lymphocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, were collected and analyzed. The binary logistic regression and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (SAS. 9.2) were utilized for the statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Based on the regression coefficient score, age more than 70, total lymphocyte count less than 1500cell/mm³, albumin less than 3.5g/§£and the percent of ideal body weight less than 90%, the following CMC-NRS index was determined; CMC-NRS (Catholic Medical Center-Nutrition risk screening) = 3.5*Age + 5.5*PIBW + 6.0*Albumin + 5.0*TLC.According to ROC curve, CMC-NRS more than 10.5 points is categorized to be in malnutrition.

CONCLUSION
Further study on the effect of early nutrition intervention would be required.

From  
PENSA 2009
“Energizing Nutrition Support Practice for Life”
June 5-7 2009, Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
Page: 94