The Mini Nutritional Assessment®—Its History, Today's Practice, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA; Nestle Nutrition, Vevey, Switzerland) was developed for nutrition screening in the elderly. Since then, it became the most established and widespread screening tool for older persons and has been translated into many different languages. The MNA shows prognostic relevance with regard to functionality, morbidity, and mortality of the elderly in different settings. This article recalls the development of the MNA with its short form (MNA-SF) and reviews the literature, focusing on the most recent publications. Specific features of the application of the MNA in different settings (community, nursing home, hospital) are considered. Minor shortcomings of the tool, such as the resources and the cooperation necessary for completion of the MNA, are discussed. Future options for the adaptation of this valuable tool are briefly characterized.

Association of Nutrition Status and Rehabilitation Outcome in the Disuse Syndrome: a Retrospective Cohort Study

“…Validated methods like the Subjective Global Assessment or Mini Nutritional Assessment are better tools for assessing nutrition. 12,13 Second, as there are no validated criteria for the disuse syndrome, its diagnosis may be different between physicians in rehabilitation departments.…”

Poor nutritional status of older subacute patients predicts clinical outcomes and mortality at 18 months of follow-up

“…Within the hospitals sampled, it is clinical protocol for a full nutritional assessment to be completed within 72 h of admission in all patients over the age of 65 years using the validated MNA tool. 21 The MNA has been used extensively in older patients in community, hospital and nursing home settings in many countries around the world 26 and more recently a short version (MNA-Short Form) has been validated that is able to be completed within a few minutes. 13 Availability of reliable, high-quality data on the nutritional status of all patients admitted within a defined time frame offered the opportunity of retrospective data analysis.…”

Mini nutritional assessment and 10-year mortality in free-living elderly women: a prospective cohort study with 10-year follow-up

“…6 The first six items in the MNA test constitute the MNA-SF. The MNA-SF is used as a first screening test to determine if the patient can be quickly classified to have a normal nutritional status or if there is a reason to go through the remaining 12 items in the full MNA test.…”

“…As many as 70% of elderly hospital in-patients may be classified as 'malnourished' by MNA, whereas in a freeliving population, this proportion is mostly only around 2%. 6 This difference in prevalence may limit the feasibility in transferring results from, for example, nursing homes to the general elderly population.…”

“…4 Mini nutritional assessment (MNA) is the screening test for malnutrition in the elderly, recommended by the task force on nutrition and ageing of International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics European region and International Academy of Nutrition and Aging 5 and is widely used in continental Europe and Asia. 6 A low MNA score, indicating malnutrition, has been associated with longer hospital stays, 7 lower quality of life 8 and an increased mortality rate. [9][10][11][12] The initial part of the MNA test constitute the MNA-short form (MNA-SF) and has been shown to have a good correlation with the full MNA test.…”