Background: The prevalence of malnutrition among institutionalised and community-dwelling older persons with home nursing varies between 30-60 percent and 2-10 percent, respectively. An early determination of nutritional risk is important, to be able to initiate nutritional therapy and prevent malnutrition. However, it is unclear which screening tools are best suited for use in the two groups of older persons in need of care.Objective: To identify screening tools that can determine the risk of undernutrition in institutionalised and community-dwelling older persons with home nursing, by examining the validity, reliability and acceptability of tools that have been identified.Method: Systematic literature study. The searches were conducted in 2014 in the databases MEDLINE, Cinahl, Ovid Nursing and Food Science Source, PubMed, Embase and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and hand search of journals.Results: We found four different screening tools, MNA-SF, SNAQ, MST and GNRI, reported in nine validation studies. MNA-SF was validated most times (four studies) and both sensitivity and specificity were high. MST was validated in one study with moderate specificity. The other tools showed moderate validity. None of the included studies examined the usefulness of the screening tool.Conclusion: Four screening tools, MNA-SF, SNAQ, MST and GNRI, were validated in the two groups of elderly persons. MNA-SF was best suited to uncover nutritional risk in both groups, but more research is needed.

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