Serum levels assessment of vitamin A, E, C, B2and carotenoids in malnourished and non-malnourished hospitalized elderly patients

A review of the validity of malnutrition screening tools used in older adults in community and healthcare settings – A MaNuEL study

“…malnutrition. Biochemical measurements have been consistently shown to be unreliable indicators of nutritional status in older adults [28,29]. Moreover, they are costly and time-consuming, contradicting the principles of good screening practise set out by Wilson and Jungner, which state that screening should be a quick and simple procedure [30].…”

“…The NUFFE was designed with the purpose of obtaining a simple, clinically useful tool to screen for undernutrition in older rehabilitation patients in Sweden [58], and has since been validated in other settings, including the community and hospital [59,60]. Its original validation study design is questionable as criterion and predictive validity were assessed against BMI, weight index and albumin levels, all of which have been considered unreliable measures of nutritional status in older adults [28,58,61]. A subsequent study in the rehabilitation setting reported that the NUFFE could identify malnutrition as effectively as clinical assessment by a trained nutrition professional (p < 0.05) [62].…”

“…Another study, using the SGA, reported good results (sensitivity 78%, specificity 89%) [88]. Nonetheless, the use of biochemical markers as a measure of nutritional status in older adults remains unclear [28,29], as it is difficult to establish whether abnormal levels are due to malnutrition itself, an underlying disease, or disease-associated inflammation. For this reason, the use of CONUT as a malnutrition screening tool remains controversial.…”

Scurvy in a patient with AIDS: case report

“…Decreased serum vitamin C levels are quite common among hospitalized adults, particularly among alcoholics, the elderly and malnourished individuals 1,2 . A full-blown clinical picture of scurvy is rarely seen in adults, but there have been case reports and circumstances in which scurvy has been evident in patients with chronic kidney disease or cancer 3 .…”

Nutrition Discussion Forum

“…Several studies (Katakity et al 1983;McWhirter & Pennington, 1994;Azad et al 1999;Covinsky et al 1999;Hall et al 2000;Cunha et al 2001;Kyle et al 2002) have shown that many patients admitted to hospital have multiple micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies. Moreover, while in hospital, either because of poor appetite and unattractive food, or a mixture of both, many patients have inadequate micronutrient and macronutrient intakes.…”