Estela Iraci Rabito

Nutritional Risk Screening 2002, Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire, Malnutrition Screening Tool, and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool Are Good Predictors of Nutrition Risk in an Emergency Service

Background: There is an international consensus that nutrition screening be performed at the hospital; however, there is no “best tool” for screening of malnutrition risk in hospitalized patients. Objective: To evaluate (1) the accuracy of the MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool), MST (Malnutrition Screening Tool), and SNAQ (Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire) in comparison with the NRS-2002 (Nutritional Risk Screening 2002) to identify patients at risk of malnutrition and (2) the ability of these nutrition screening tools to predict morbidity and mortality. Methods: A specific questionnaire was administered to complete the 4 screening tools. Outcomes measures included length of hospital stay, transfer to the intensive care unit, presence of infection, and incidence of death. Results: A total of 752 patients were included. The nutrition risk was 29.3%, 37.1%, 33.6%, and 31.3% according to the NRS-2002, MUST, MST, and SNAQ, respectively. All screening tools showed satisfactory performance to identify patients at nutrition risk (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve between 0.765–0.808). Patients at nutrition risk showed higher risk of very long length of hospital stay as compared with those not at nutrition risk, independent of the tool applied (relative risk, 1.35–1.78). Increased risk of mortality (2.34 times) was detected by the MUST. Conclusion: The MUST, MST, and SNAQ share similar accuracy to the NRS-2002 in identifying risk of malnutrition, and all instruments were positively associated with very long hospital stay. In clinical practice, the 4 tools could be applied, and the choice for one of them should be made per the particularities of the service.

Nutritional risk assessment in hospitalized children: a comparison of pediatric subjective global assessment and STRONGkids screening tool with anthropometric indicators

Aims: To compare the Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) and the Screening Tool for Risk on Nutritional Status and Growth (STRONGkids) protocols with anthropometric measurements at admission, and associate them to length of stay in hospitalized children. Methods: Cross-sectional study with patients from four to 8.9 years admitted to a pediatric hospital in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The sample was selected by convenience, and data collection occurred between June and October 2014. Patients in the Intensive Care Unit and those unable to feed orally were not included. We collected general and socioeconomic information and applied STRONGkids and SGNA protocols at admission. Clinical and anthropometric data were retrieved from electronic medical records. Results: We evaluated 317 patients with a mean age of 76.1±17.5 months, most of them admitted for surgery (21.5%). According to anthropometric measurements, 5% of patients were malnourished, 74.1% had normal weight and 20.8% were overweight. There was a statistically significant association between malnutrition classified by anthropometric measurements and moderate and severe malnutrition defined by SGNA (p<0.001). There was also a significant association between overweight, normal weight and malnutrition classified by anthropometric measurements and low, medium and high nutritional risk, respectively (p<0.001). There was a statistically significant agreement, although very weak, between STRONGkids and anthropometric measurements (kappa=0.148; p=0.001). Conclusions: All protocols were associated (though in low intensity) to length of hospital stay. In addition, STRONGkids showed greater agreement, although still weak, with anthropometric measurements when compared to the SGNA . Further studies are needed to verify the agreement of these protocols with other objective methods of nutritional assessment.

Body composition of Fanconi anemia patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Introduction Fanconi anemia is a rare genetic disease linked to bone marrow failure; a possible treatment is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Changes in the nutritional status of Fanconi anemia patients are not very well known. This study aimed to characterize body composition of adult, children and adolescent patients with Fanconi anemia who were submitted to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or not. Methods This cross-sectional study enrolled 63 patients (29 adults and 34 children and adolescents). Body composition was assessed based on diverse methods, including triceps skin fold, arm circumference, arm muscle area and bioelectrical impedance analysis, as there is no established consensus for this population. Body mass index was also considered as reference according to age. Results Almost half (48.3%) of the transplanted adult patients were underweight considering body mass index whereas eutrophic status was observed in 66.7% of the children and adolescents submitted to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and in 80% of those who were not. At least 50% of all groups displayed muscle mass depletion. Half of the transplanted children and adolescents presented short/very short stature for age. Conclusion All patients presented low muscle stores, underweight was common in adults, and short stature was common in children and adolescents. More studies are needed to detect whether muscle mass loss measured at the early stages of treatment results in higher risk of mortality, considering the importance of muscle mass as an essential body component to prevent mortality related to infectious and non-infectious diseases and the malnutrition inherent to Fanconi anemia.

The New European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Definition of Malnutrition: Application for Nutrition Assessment and Prediction of Morbimortality in an Emergency Service

BACKGROUND Recently, the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) provided novel consensus criteria for malnutrition diagnosis. This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of this instrument in combination with different nutrition screening tools (1) to identify malnutrition and (2) to predict morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Observational prospective study in 750 adults admitted to the emergency service of a tertiary public hospital. Subjective Global Assessment (SGA-reference method) and the new ESPEN criteria were used to assess nutrition status of patients, who were initially screened for nutrition risk using 4 different tools. Outcome measures included length of hospital stay, occurrence of infection, and incidence of death during hospitalization, analyzed by logistic regression. RESULTS There was a lack of agreement between the SGA and ESPEN definition of malnutrition, regardless of the nutrition screening tool applied previously (κ = -0.050 to 0.09). However, when Malnutrition Screening Tool and Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002) were used as the screening tool, malnourished patients according to ESPEN criteria showed higher probability of infection (relative risk [RR], 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.31 and RR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.37-3.10, respectively), and when the NRS-2002 was used, the risk for death was 2.7 times higher (hazard ratio, 2.69; 95% CI, 1.07-6.81) in malnourished patients than in well-nourished patients. CONCLUSION Although the new ESPEN criteria had a poor diagnostic value, it seems to be a prognostic tool among hospitalized patients, especially when used in combination with the NRS-2002.

Indicators of sarcopenia and their relation to intrinsic and extrinsic factors relating to falls among active elderly women

Introduction: Musculoskeletal aging can impair functional performance increasing the risk of falls. Objective: To analyze the correlation between sarcopenia and the intrinsic and extrinsic factors involved in falls among community-dwelling elderly women. Method: A cross-sectional study evaluated the number of falls of 85 active community-dwelling elderly women in the previous year and then divided them into two groups: non-fallers (n=61) and fallers (n=24). The sarcopenia indicators assessed were gait speed (GS, 10m); handgrip strength (HS); calf circumference; appendicular muscle mass index (DXA). Intrinsic factors: Mental State Examination (MSE); visual acuity; depression (GDS-30); hip , knee (Lequesne) and ankle/foot (FAOS) pain/function; vestibular function (Fukuda test); functional mobility and risk of falls (TUG); power (sitting and standing five times); gait (treadmill); fear of falling (FES-I-Brazil). Extrinsic factors: risk/security features in homes. The independent t test was applied for comparisons between groups and the Pearson and Spearman tests were used for correlations (p<0.05). Results: There was a moderate correlation between HS and GS in non-fallers (r=0.47; p=0.001) and fallers (r= 0.54; p=0.03). There was a moderate negative correlation (r= -0.52; p=0.03) between FES-I-Brazil and gait cadence in fallers. There was a greater presence of stairs (p=0.001) and throw rugs (p=0.03) in the homes of fallers than non-fallers. Conclusion: The elderly women were not sarcopenic. Elderly fallers presented inferior gait cadence and a greater fear of falling. Residential risks were determining factors for falls, and were more relevant than intrinsic factors in the evaluation of falls among active community-dwelling elders.

Nutritional Risk in Emergency-2017: A New Simplified Proposal for a Nutrition Screening Tool

BACKGROUND There are many nutrition screening tools currently being applied in hospitals to identify risk of malnutrition. However, multivariate statistical models are not usually employed to take into account the importance of each variable included in the instruments development. OBJECTIVE To develop and evaluate the concurrent and predictive validities of a new screening tool of nutrition risk. METHODS A prospective cohort study was developed, in which 4 nutrition screening tools were applied to all patients. Length of stay in hospital and mortality were considered to test the predictive validity, and the concurrent validity was tested by comparing the Nuritional Risk in Emergency (NRE)-2017 to the other tools. RESULTS A total of 748 patients were included. The final NRE-2017 score was composed of 6 questions (advanced age, metabolic stress of the disease, decreased appetite, changing of food consistency, unintentional weight loss, and muscle mass loss) with answers yes or no. The prevalence of nutrition risk was 50.7% and 38.8% considering the cutoff points 1.0 and 1.5, respectively. The NRE-2017 showed a satisfactory power to indentify risk of malnutrition (area under the curve >0.790 for all analyses). According to the NRE-2017, patients at risk of malnutrition have twice as high relative risk of a very long hospital stay. The hazard ratio for mortality was 2.78 (1.03-7.49) when the cutoff adopted by the NRE-2017 was 1.5 points. CONCLUSION NRE-2017 is a new, easy-to-apply nutrition screening tool which uses 6 bi-categoric features to detect the risk of malnutrition, and it presented a good concurrent and predictive validity.

Consumo alimentar e risco cardiovascularem pessoas vivendo com HIV/AIDS

Resumo O presente estudo analisou o consumo alimentar e a presenca de fatores de risco cardiovasculares em pessoas vivendo com HIV/AIDS (PVHA) em uso regular de antirretrovirais. O consumo alimentar foi avaliado por meio de questionario de frequencia alimentar anual, dividido em alimentos protetores e nao protetores para doenca cardiovascular (DCV). Os dados foram calculados pelo Teste t de Student para amostras independentes, pelo Teste U de Mann-Whitney e pelo teste exato de Fischer, considerando significativo p < 0,05. A amostra consistiu de 45 PVHA (60% do sexo feminino). O consumo de alimentos nao protetores para o risco cardiovascular foi maior do que o de alimentos protetores nos homens (3,91 ± 0,26 vs. 2,79 ± 0,32 p = 0,01) e nas mulheres (3,40 ± 0,23 vs. 2,60 ± 0,29 p = 0,04). A prevalencia de sindrome metabolica foi 33,3% nos homens e 37% nas mulheres. Os homens apresentaram hipertrigliceridemia (50%) e baixas concentracoes de HDL-c (44%), enquanto que as mulheres apresentaram hipertrigliceridemia (46%), hipercolesterolemia (66,7%, p < 0,02 vs. homens) e obesidade central (54%, p < 0,05 vs. homens). Os resultados deste estudo indicam a presenca de padrao de consumo alimentar inadequado e elevada prevalencia de fatores de risco relacionados as DCV nos individuos avaliados.This cross-sectional study evaluated the food intake patterns related to cardiovascular risk disease among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) with viral suppression and receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Food intake was obtained by the annual food frequency questionnaire, separated into two groups, healthy and unhealthy food related intake and cardiovascular disease. Data were analyzed using Students t Test for independent samples or the Mann-Whitney U Test and Fishers exact test, with a significance level of p < 0.05. The sample consisted of 45 individuals with HIV/AIDS (60% female). The intake of unhealthy foods for cardiovascular risk was greater compared to the intake of healthy foods, both in men (3.91 ± 0.26 vs. 2.79 ± 0.32 p = 0.01) and women (3.40 ± 0.23 vs. 2.60 ± 0.29 p = 0.04). Metabolic syndrome prevalence was 33.3% in men and 37% in women. Men presented hypertriglyceridemia (50%) and low HDL (44%) and women presented central obesity (54%, p = 0.05 vs. men) hypercholesterolemia (66.7% p = 0.02 vs. men) and hypertriglyceridemia (46%). Study results indicate the presence of unhealthy food intake patterns and a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the evaluated subjects.