journal articles
REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF INDICATORS IN NUTRITION SCREENING TOOLS THAT IDENTIFY MALNUTRITION AMONG LONG TERM CARE RESIDENTS
S. Johnson, A. Siddique, K. Hyer
Jour Nursing Home Res 2017;3:88-98
Background: Malnutrition is common among nursing home residents and it occurs when the nutrient intake is not sufficient, precipitated by a complex array of physiological, psychosocial and other factors. The importance of addressing malnutrition as early as possible in an efficient and effective manner has resulted in the development of several nutrition screening tools (NSTs) to identify those at risk for malnutrition. However, a recent systematic review of the NSTs concluded that «none performs better than «fair» in assessing nutritional status or in predicting outcomes.» Objectives: Thus, the purpose of this systematic review is to identify and review the indicators included in NSTs that identify malnutrition among LTC residents. Methods: For this systematic review, relevant publications were identified using a comprehensive search of electronic databases based on pre-established search criteria. A final list of 17 articles were reviewed and relevant data pertinent to the NSTs and the specific indicators used were extracted and entered into an excel spreadsheet for further analysis. The indicators were grouped as anthropometric measurements, biochemical, clinical factors, dietary assessment, psychological, social and physical factors, and then the individual indicators within each of the groupings were examined. Results: This paper shows that NSTs rely heavily on anthropometric measurements (93%) especially on body mass or weight based indicators (BMI, weight loss). Only 12% of NSTs include any biochemical indicator. Heavy reliance on certain indicators could compromise the effectiveness of NSTs in identifying individuals with malnutrition or in predicting outcomes. Conclusions NSTs, encompassing combinations of varied indicators, provides an alternate choice, however the optimal and best combination of these indicators has yet to be determined.
CITATION:
S. Johnson ; A. Siddique ; K. Hyer (2017): Review and Analysis of Indicators in Nutrition Screening Tools that Identify Malnutrition Among Long Term Care Residents. The Journal of Nursing Home Research Science (JNHRS). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jnhrs.2017.14