J Korean Soc Parenter Enter Nutr.  2009 Dec;2(1):6-12.

Comparison of Tools for Nutritional Risk Screening at Hospital Admission

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Nutrition Care Services, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea. juniffer@snubh.org
  • 2Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Nutritional risk screening has been emphasized to predict those patients who are malnourished or at high nutritional risk. In 2006, we developed the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Nutrition Screening Tool (SNUBH-NST) using a nutritional screening index (NSI) based on the predictors of the nutritional status. The aim of this study was to compare the SNUBH-NST and the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) recommended by the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN) as the preferred nutritional risk screening tool for hospitalized patients.
METHODS
Three hundred and eighty two patients hospitalized in medical and surgical wards were screened and classified as being well nourished or at nutritional risk by the SNUBH-NST and the NRS 2002 within 48 h of admission. The anthropometric measurements and laboratory data were assessed and the length of hospital stay was obtained from the medical chart. Differences between independent groups were assessed with Student's t test and the agreement between both tools was analyzed by the chi2-test. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated for the correlation between the nutritional risk and the variables.
RESULTS
The SNUBH-NST and the NRS 2002 identified 14.7% and 20.9% of all the assessed patients as being at nutritional risk, respectively, and agreement was observed for 340 of the 382 (89%) patients with using both tools (kappa=0.627, P<0.001). The anthropometrics and laboratory data were lower and the length of hospital stay was longer for the patients who were screened as being at nutritional risk by both tools (P<0.001).
CONCLUSION
The nutritional risk screened by the SNUBH-NST correlated significantly with age, the anthropometrics, the laboratory data and the length of stay. Agreement was substantial between the SNUBH-NST and the NRS 2002. Therefore, the SNUBH-NST can be used to screen patients who are at nutritional risk on admission. This study suggested that nutritional information and nutrition care plans should be shared with clinicians. Further studies are needed to investigate whether the SNUBH-NST can predict the clinical outcomes.

Keyword

Nutritional risk screening; Malnutrition; Clinical outcome

MeSH Terms

Enteral Nutrition
Humans
Length of Stay
Malnutrition
Mass Screening*
Nutritional Status
Seoul
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