TITLE:
Nutritional Screening Tools in Institutionalized People: A Case Study of Using Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS 2002) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA)
AUTHORS:
Ana Cláudia Araújo Santana, Daiane Costa dos Santos, Mariana Buranelo Egea
KEYWORDS:
Nursing Home, Elderly, Nutritional Risk, Overweight
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.15 No.7,
July
17,
2024
ABSTRACT: Nutritional status expresses the physiological and nutritional needs to maintain the composition and adequate functioning of the organism. NRS 2002 and MNA protocols were applied to short-term institutionalized patients in Rio Verde (Brazil). Older adults and people with special needs of all ages, both sexes, regardless of possible pathology they may have, except if it causes contagion, were included, patients duly authorized by the person responsible for the institution and who were able to undergo evaluation. Thirty-eight patients from the institution were evaluated, of which ten were excluded from the research according to pre-established criteria. More than 50% of participants were male, with an overall average age of 63.43 years. The characteristics related to nutritional status by NRS 2002 and MNA showed that the risk of malnutrition and its absence are associated with a wide age range. The MNA presents a more nuanced nutritional risk classification, showing that even 61% of the 96% of participants who would be out of nutrition risk, according to the NRS 2002, are “at risk of malnutrition”. Applying the MNA can demonstrate more conservative results than the NRS 2002.