Abstract

GIRALDO VILLA, Adriana; LOPEZ GOMEZ, Lina Marcela  and  YEPES DELGADO, Carlos Enrique. Accurate diagnosis of an institutional nutritional screening scale. Perspect Nut Hum [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.2, pp.157-169. ISSN 0124-4108.

Introduction: subjective global assessment (SGA) is a method included in nutritional assessment. However, it is required to make an adjustment to reduce subjectivity in nutritional risk assessment. Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of an institutional scale for nutritional screening from a third/fourth level hospital. Methods: 310 patients were participated in a cross-sectional study. Each patient was evaluated by SGA and institutional scale. Diagnostic accuracy was evaluated by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and area under a ROC curve (AUC). Results: Undernutrition risk and undernutrition, evaluated by SGA, were 47.1% and 15.8%, respectively. In contrast, undernutrition risk and undernutrition, evaluated by the institutional scale, were respectively: 39.4% and 15.2%. Institutional scale sensitivity to detect nutritional risk and undernutrition was 75.4%. The ROC curve indicated an acceptable level of discrimination AUC: 0.78 (IC 95% 0.73-0.84). Conclusion: compared to the SGA, the institutional scale has an acceptable accuracy diagnosis to evaluate nutritional status. Thus, it is a practical and safe tool, in hospitalized adult patients, in order to indicate appropriate therapeutic interventions.

Keywords : malnutrition; hospitalization; patient care; nutrition assessment; ROC curve; straining.

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