Objective:There is no single test and recommended method ideal for nutritional risk assessment in hospitalized elderly patients. In this study, we intended to screen hospitalized elderly patients for malnutrition by using two tests and compare the results with anthropometric measurements and hand grip strength test and describe the relationship between them.
Materials and Methods:In this study, we evaluated 200 hospitalized patients aged 60 years and over in the internal medicine, cardiology and Infectious diseases departments. We applied nutritional risk screening (NRS 2002) with the hand grip test and the mini nutritional assessment (MNA). Body Mass index and upper arm and calf circumference measurements were recorded. Chi-square and ANOVA test were used for statistical analyses.
Results:Of the 200 patients, 98 were female and 102 were male. The mean age was 71.3±8.1 years. According to the NRS-2002, the prevalence of malnutrition risk was 34%; according to the MNA, the prevalence of malnutrition was 23.5%, and the prevalence of malnutrition risk was 27.5%. According to the NRS-2002, 38% of the patients at risk for malnutrition were female and 62% were male (p=0.029). The relationship between hand grip test and Mini Nutritional Assesment (MNA) was statistically significant (p<0.0001).
Conclusion:We suppose that the MNA test which was used for screening of malnutrition in outpatient setting can be used for hospitalized patients as NRS 2002, and we suggest that anthropometric measurements and hand grip test would be reliable tools for sarcopenia as malnutrition screening and assessment.