COMPARISON OF EFFECTIVENESS IN MALNUTRITION RISK ASSESSMENT BETWEEN MST (MALNUTRITION SCREENING TOOL) AND MNA-SF (MINI NUTRITIONAL SHORT FORM) REVIEWED FROM BODY MASS INDEX ON GERIATRIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Malnutrition is still a major nutritional problem both when patients enter and as long as patients are hospitalized. Geriatric or elderly patients are a group of patients at high risk of malnutrition. Determination of the risk of malnutrition can be done through nutritional screening. Both of nutrition screening tools were reported to be accurate. MST (Malnutrition Screening Tool) is a screening tool that is easier, simple and faster, and is reported to have fairly good accuracy. MNA-SF (Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form) is the most widely used nutritional screening tool and is a good prognostic tool for detecting malnutrition in elderly patients. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the risk assessment of malnutrition between the two questionnaires if used for geriatric patients. The cross sectional study was carried out on geriatric patients in the Inpatient Room of RSUD dr. Soediran Mangun Soemarso Wonogiri. A total of 50 new geriatric patients treated in the class 3 treatment room were taken as samples. BMI <18.5 kg/m² is used as a standard category for the risk of malnutrition. The relationship between variables was tested by the chi square test. The results of data analysis showed that MST scores ≥ 2 (p =0.025; OR = 4.511) and MNA-SF <12 (p = 0.022; OR = 8.905) were significantly associated with the risk of malnutrition. There were no significant differences in screening results between the two questionnaires (p = 0.081) The effectiveness of MST assessment with marginal probability (p = 0.081) is still below MNA-SF. These results give consideration that MST can be used as an alternative screening tool with fairly good accuracy.

Keywords: MST; MNA-SF; geriatric patient,malnutrition, BMI index