title: Nutritional risk screening in hospitalized patients with heart failure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Malnutrition is an important issue in patient outcome. Screening tools to find risk patients need to be evaluated. This study looks at the validity and reliability of nutritional risk screening (named NRS-2002) in hospitalized patients with chronic heart failure.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study nutritional screening was performed using NRS-2002 in 131 patients with chronic heart failure. The predictive validity was evaluated in relation to whether NRS-2002 predicted the incidence of complications and length of hospital stay. NRS-2002's ability to locate nutritional risk in patients with edema was evaluated. The inter-rater reliability was measured between three investigators screening 45 patients each.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of nutritional risk was 57%. The incidence of complications and the median length of hospital stay were significantly higher in patients at nutritional risk compared to patients not at nutritional risk. Only the component of severity of disease in NRS-2002 and not the component of the nutritional status was associated with increased length of hospital stay in multivariate analysis. Patients with edema were classified correctly regarding nutritional risk status by NRS-2002 in all but one occasion. The inter-rater reliability was documented, kappa >0.60.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NRS-2002 was a reliable screening tool in an in-patient sample with chronic heart failure. The validity of NRS-2002 needs further investigation in a larger sample of hospitalized patients with chronic heart failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, St. Olav's University Hospital, Postbox 3250 Sluppen, 7006 Trondheim, Norway; Department of Public Health and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Postbox 8905, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Kjerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tevik
authors.affiliation: Telemark Hospital, Medical Department, Notodden, Postbox 234 Notodden, 3672 Notodden, Norway.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Thürmer
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, St. Olav's University Hospital, Postbox 3250 Sluppen, 7006 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Marit Inderhaug
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Husby
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Nutrition, St. Olav's University Hospital, Postbox 3250 Sluppen, 7006 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Ann Kristin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: de Soysa
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Postbox 8905, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway; St. Olav's University Hospital, Postbox 3250 Sluppen, 7006 Trondheim, Norway. Electronic address: Anne-Sofie.Helvik@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: Anne-Sofie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Helvik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004487:Edema / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Complications; Disease-related malnutrition in hospital; Heart failure; Length of stay; Multivariate regression analysis; Nutritional risk screening (NRS-2002)