Nutritional screening tools for HIV-infected patients: implications for elderly patients.
BACKGROUND
Nutrition is a crucial issue for elderly HIV-infected patients. Screening tools (''DETERMINE your nutrition health checklist'' [NSI], the Mini-Nutritional Assessment [MNA], the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool [MUST] test, and the modified version of the Subjective Global Assessment [SGA]-HIV) might not detect problems in visceral fat accumulation, visceral protein loss, and lipodystrophy in elderly HIV-positive populations.


METHODS
Literature review of articles in English, French, and Spanish published in Medline and Cochrane databases through January 2010.


RESULTS
New studies question the use of body mass index (BMI) and weight loss as proxies for nutritional problems in HIV-positive patients. In the case of elderly HIV-infected patients, screening tools to deal with the aforementioned issues are currently being investigated.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors suggest that a unique nutritional screening test that contains measures including BMI, weight loss, waist-to-hip (W/H) ratio, and mid-arm circumference may be able to detect nutritional problems in elderly patients infected with HIV. Further trials combining these 4 anthropometric measures in elderly HIV-infected patients are needed.
Department of Medicine, Section of Geriatric Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. mruiz@lsuhsc.edu
Marco
M
Ruiz
Leigh Ann
LA
Kamerman
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D015431:Weight Loss