title: Screening for malnutrition in hospitalised older people: Comparison of the Mini Nutritional Assessment with its short-form versions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine how well the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) Short Form (MNA-SF) performed as a nutritional screening tool when calf circumference replaced body mass index (BMI) as the included anthropometric measurement.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 100 patients ≥70 years were recruited from a Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age of patients was 85.2 (6.1) years. By the full MNA, 40% of patients were malnourished. The MNA correlated highly with both of its short-form versions (r = 0.87 and r = 0.90 for the BMI and calf circumference versions, respectively). Both MNA-SF versions also showed high accuracy in identifying malnutrition (auROC values >0.89).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MNA-SF is a rapid and accurate way to screen for malnutrition in hospitalised older adults. Substitution of BMI measurement with the time-efficient calf circumference measurement maintained MNA-SF accuracy. It is recommended that calf circumference measurement be used for nutritional screening by MNA-SF in a hospital setting.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland.|School of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4006-3992
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dent
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Medicine, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Centre of Research Excellence in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Medicine, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Centre of Research Excellence in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piantadosi
authors.affiliation: NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence: Frailty Trans-disciplinary Research to Achieve Healthy Ageing, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.|Adelaide Geriatrics Training and Research with Aged Care (G-TRAC) Center, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.|Aged and Extended Care Service, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Renuka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Visvanathan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment
keywords: aged; inpatients; nutritional status; predictive value of tests; screening