Identifying older people at risk of malnutrition and treatment in the community: prevalence and concurrent validation of the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist with ‘MUST’

• Published in: Journal of human nutrition and dietetics 2020-02, Vol.33 (1), p.31-37
• Main Authors: Murphy, J. L., Aburrow, A., Guestini, A., Brown, R., Parsons, E., Wallis, K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Appetite loss; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Body weight loss; community; Diet; Malnutrition; Nutrition; older adults; Older people; Quality standards; Risk; screening; validation; Weight loss
• ISSN: 0952-3871; 1365-277X
• DOI: 10.1111/jhn.12710

Background Despite policy guidance and quality standards, the majority of older adults with or at risk of malnutrition living in the community still remain under‐detected and under‐treated by health and social care professionals. The present study aimed to evaluate the concurrent validity of the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist against the ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ (‘MUST’). Methods This cross‐sectional study involved 312 older adults recruited from 21 lunch and social groups. All participants were screened as per standard methodology for ‘MUST’. For the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist, they provided information about signs of unintentional weight loss in the past 3–6 months, experiencing loss of appetite or interest in eating. Chance‐corrected agreement (κ) was assessed. Results Mean (SD) age of participants was 79.6 (8.3) years and body mass index was 27.8 (5.6) kg m–2. The majority (n = 197; 63%) were living alone. Using ‘MUST’, the overall prevalence of malnutrition was 9.9% (n = 31) comprising 6.7% at medium risk and 3.2% at high risk. There were 21.8% of participants (n = 68) rated at risk of overall malnutrition by the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist. Moderate agreement was observed between the two tools (κ = 0.47, P