Determination of Nutritional Status Using Various Screening Tools in Elderly

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The present study was carried out to determine the nutritional status of the elderly living in nursing homes through dissimilar nutritional screening tools, to compare the said screening tools, and to check the malnutrition status of the elderly group in question. A total of 88 volunteers (M=60, F=28) with a mean age of 76.91±8.18 years living in a private nursing home were included in the study. Anthropometric measurements, hand grip strength, and serum albumin values were obtained from health record files. Malnutrition status according to different nutritional screening test results were as follows:  NSI 1.1% was high-risk, MUST was 3.4% in the medium-risk, MNA 3.4% was in the malnutrition, GNRI 10.2% was determined to have low risk. A low correlation between BMI (p=0.032), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) (p=0.003), and calf circumference (p=0.009) was spotted; a very high correlation (p<0.001) between GNRI score and albumin, a lower one between PAL (p=0.004) and waist/hip (p=0.015) were figured out; a low correlation between NSI score and only waist/height (p=0.040) and PAL (p=0.001) was discovered. A negative correlation between NSI score and MNA score (r=-0.419) and a positive correlation between GNRI and MNA scores (r= 0.424) was unveiled. For early diagnosis, malnutrition screening tools should be selected in accordance with the lifestyle of the elderly in a home, nursing home, or hospital and should be followed up by repeating screening tests at regular intervals.