[Development of a nutritional assessment tool for home care centers].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to develop a tool for nutritional assessment, so that home care nurses can make early assessment of patients' nutritional status.


METHODS
The study was done in two parts: first a tool was developed to assess nutrition, and second the content validity and clinical validity of the categories and indices were verified.


RESULTS
The results of this study are summarized in two ways. First, the nutritional assessment tool was classified into 3 areas, physical measurement, nutritional survey and clinical survey, and into 11 categories with 22 indices. Second, when 5 of the 11 categories were positive, nutritional status was considered to be poor.


CONCLUSIONS
By developing a clinically useful nutritional assessment tool for patients receiving home care, which was developed in this study, the quality of life for these patients will improve and contribution to the development of a more effective clinical home nursing practice will occur.
Kim
Kyoung-Rye
KR
Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Seoul 15-710, Korea. teddy627@hanmail.net
D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009739:Nursing Services; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis
D006454:Hemoglobins; D012709:Serum Albumin