Validity of the nutritional risk index as an indicator of malnutrition in hospitalized patients

International Journal of Development Research

Volume: 
07
Article ID: 
8092
5 pages
Research Article

Validity of the nutritional risk index as an indicator of malnutrition in hospitalized patients

NutritionistAna Cristina Lozzer Barcelos,NutritionistElise Passamani Noé, Hanna Barbosa Gomes, Janine Alexandre Borges Bartochevis, Mariana Souza Vieira, Rafael Araújo Guedes de Moraes, Taisa Sabrina Silva Pereira, Valdete Regina Guandalini

Abstract: 

Malnutrition is commonly seen in hospitals and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Objective was to validate the use of the Nutritional Risk Index (NRI) in combination with different methods of nutritional assessment in the identification of malnutrition in hospitalized patients. Cross-sectional study. The diagnosis of malnutrition was obtained from the NRI, anthropometric variables and the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). To evaluate the efficacy of the methods in the detection of malnutrition compared to SGA, a ROC curve was constructed and its area (AUROC) estimated. The agreement between the NRI and the SGA was verified by the kappa coefficient. We evaluated 100 patients, with a mean age of 53.20 ± 14.80 years. Malnutrition was identified in 68 patients by the SGA and 63 by the NRI. Significant correlations were observed between the NRI and most of the analyzed anthropometric variables and serum albumin. Sensitivity and positive values were 77.0% and 78.0%, respectively, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.74. The NRI was able to identify patients at nutritional risk when compared to the SGA and anthropometric variables, supporting its use as a complementary tool in the evaluation of nutritional status in hospitalized patients.

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