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Nutritional Screening Tools in Critical Care

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Diet and Nutrition in Critical Care

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Abstract

Nutrition screening tools are rapid, simple, and accurate methods of determining patient nutritional status. They are usually used at first contact with a dietician or another healthcare professional such as a nurse or doctor. A full clinical assessment is not complete without nutritional screening. The use of a nutritional screening tool is usually standardized across a region as recommended by organizations such as the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) or the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN). Of course, other organizations in various different countries have also set regional standards of practice.

During the development of a nutritional screening tool, the variables that affect nutritional status must be considered. These include dietary, physical, anthropometric, psychological, social, and clinical factors. Nutritional screening tools can also provide a timeline of patient nutritional status, informing past, present, and/or future risk of malnutrition. Depending on the tool used, several variables can be determined; the most simple tools measure protein-energy status.

The most commonly used tools in current clinical practice are Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire© (SNAQ©), Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002), and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). These tools have all been validated for their use and predictive power. Continued successful application of each tool ideally requires revalidation for the intended users in the setting in which it is to be used. There must also be a logistical infrastructure that supports nutritional screening (e.g., measurement tools, documentation, follow-up plans). Finally, each tool requires continual audit and assessment of efficacy.

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Abbreviations

BAPEN:

British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

BMI:

Body mass index

ESPEN:

European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

MNA:

Mini-Nutritional Assessment

MST:

Malnutrition Screening Tool

MUST:

Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool

NRS 2002:

Nutrition Risk Score 2002

SGA:

Subjective Global Assessment

SNAQ©:

Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire©

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathogenèse cellulaire et clinique du diabète, INSERM UMR_S 1138, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, Paris, France

    Fawaz Alzaid

  2. Royal Free London Hospitals, Barnet General Hospital, London, UK

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  3. Division of Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  4. King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

  6. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Division of Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

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  1. Fawaz Alzaid
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  2. Rajkumar Rajendram
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  3. Vinood B. Patel
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  4. Victor R. Preedy
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Correspondence to Fawaz Alzaid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Free London Hospitals, Barnet General Hospital, London, UK

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  2. Division of Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  3. King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  4. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Division of Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Science & Technology, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

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Alzaid, F., Rajendram, R., Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (2015). Nutritional Screening Tools in Critical Care. In: Rajendram, R., Preedy, V.R., Patel, V.B. (eds) Diet and Nutrition in Critical Care. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7836-2_30

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