title: Comparison of nutritional status assessment parameters in predicting length of hospital stay in cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Undernutrition has been associated with an increased length of hospital stay which may reflect the patient prognosis. The aim of this study was to quantify and compare the association between nutritional status and handgrip strength at hospital admission with time to discharge in cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational prospective study was conducted in an oncology center. Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment, Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 and handgrip strength were conducted in a probabilistic sample of 130 cancer patients. The association between baseline nutritional status, handgrip strength and time to discharge was evaluated using survival analysis with discharge alive as the outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nutritional risk ranged from 42.3 to 53.1% depending on the tool used. According to Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment severe undernutrition was present in 22.3% of the sample. The association between baseline data and time to discharge was stronger in patients with low handgrip strength (adjusted hazard ratio, low handgrip strength: 0.33; 95% confidence interval: 0.19-0.55), compared to undernourished patients evaluated by the other tools; Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment: (adjusted hazard ratio, severe undernutrition: 0.45; 95% confidence interval: 0.27-0.75) and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002: (adjusted hazard ratio, with nutritional risk: 0.55; 95% confidence interval: 0.37-0.80).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An approximate 3-fold decrease in probability of discharge alive was observed in patients with low handgrip strength. Decreasing handgrip strength tertiles allowed to discriminate between patients who will have longer hospital stay, as well as undernutrition and nutritional risk assessed by Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Portuguese Institute of Oncology Francisco Gentil, EPE, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: joanamarmendes@gmail.com.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: Portuguese Institute of Oncology Francisco Gentil, EPE, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: palves@ipoporto.min-saude.pt.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; UISPA-IDMEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: amaral.tf@gmail.com.
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Amaral
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Hand strength; Length of stay; Nutritional status; Patient discharge; Undernutrition