title: Nutritional status at submission for dietetic services and screening for malnutrition at admission to hospital.
abstract: This paper presents two studies in a quality management project that aims to diminish malnutrition among hospitalized patients. The objective of study 1 was to investigate what information was available on the nutritional status of patients submitted for dietetic services for reasons other than obesity (n= 167) and of study 2 to evaluate a nine-question screening sheet for malnutrition in patients (n= 115) within 48 h of admission to the hospital. In study 1 sufficient data to evaluate nutritional status was found for 17% of the patients submitted for dietetic services. In study 2 the screening sheet identified 21% of the patients as malnourished and a full nutritional assessment of seven anthropometrical and biochemical measurements 20%. The screening sheet could be simplified to six questions and then had a sensitivity of 0.69, a specificity of 0.91 and a positive predictive value of 0.65. It is concluded that evaluation of nutritional status in hospitalized patients has been disregarded and a simple screening sheet can be used to identify patients in need of further nutritional assessment and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Unit for Nutrition Research, National University Hospital, Reykjavik, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Thorsdóttir
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eriksen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eysteinsdóttir
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D004045:Dietary Services; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010343:Patient Admission; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D012709:Serum Albumin