Use of the Mini Nutritional Assessment to detect frailty in hospitalised older people

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dc.contributor.authorDent, E.
dc.contributor.authorVisvanathan, R.
dc.contributor.authorPiantadosi, C.
dc.contributor.authorChapman, I.
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstract<h4>Objectives</h4>The aims of this study were to: (1) determine the prevalence of undernutrition and frailty in hospitalised elderly patients and (2) evaluate the efficacy of both the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) screening tool and the MNA short form (MNA-SF) in identifying frailty.<h4>Setting and participants</h4>A convenient sample of 100 consecutive patients (75.0 % female) admitted to the Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit (GEMU) at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in South Australia.<h4>Measurements</h4>Frailty status was determined using Fried's frailty criteria and nutritional status by the MNA and MNA-SF. Optimal cut-off scores to predict frailty were determined by Youden's Index, Receiver Operator Curves (ROC) and area under curve (AUC).<h4>Results</h4>Undernutrition was common. Using the MNA, 40.0% of patients were malnourished and 44.0% were at risk of malnutrition. By Fried's classification, 66.0 % were frail, 30.0 % were pre-frail and 4.0 % robust. The MNA had a specificity of 0.912 and a sensitivity of 0.516 in predicting frailty using the recommended cut-off for malnourishment (< 17). The optimal MNA cut-off for frailty screening was <17.5 with a specificity of 0.912 and sensitivity of 0.591. The MNA-SF predicted frailty with specificity and sensitivity values of 0.794 and 0.636 respectively, using the standard cut-off of < 8. The optimal MNA-SF cut-off score for frailty was < 9, with specificity and sensitivity values of 0.765 and 0.803 respectively and was better than the optimum MNA cut-off in predicting frailty (Youden Index 0.568 vs. 0.503).<h4>Conclusion</h4>The quickly and easily administered MNA-SF appears to be a good tool for predicting both under-nutrition and frailty in elderly hospitalised people. Further studies would show whether the MNA-SF could also detect frailty in other populations of older people.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityE. Dent, R. Visvanathan, C. Piantadosi, I. Chapman
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, 2012; 16(9):764-767
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s12603-012-0405-5
dc.identifier.issn1279-7707
dc.identifier.issn1760-4788
dc.identifier.orcidDent, E. [0000-0002-4006-3992]
dc.identifier.orcidVisvanathan, R. [0000-0002-1303-9479]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/76288
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSERDI Publisher
dc.relation.grantNHMRC
dc.rightsCopyright status unknown
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-012-0405-5
dc.subjectAged
dc.subjectfrail elderly
dc.subjectundernutrition
dc.subjectscreening
dc.subjectpredictive value of tests
dc.titleUse of the Mini Nutritional Assessment to detect frailty in hospitalised older people
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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