The journal of nutrition, health & aging
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J Nutr Health Aging · Apr 2013
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyAgreement between different versions of MNA.
Malnutrition occurs frequently in the elderly with important clinical and functional consequences. Moreover, the treatment of malnutrition in the elderly may be effective if clinical and nutritional interventions are performed in the early stages. Therefore the early identification of the risk of malnutrition using validated and handy tools plays a pivotal role in terms of clinical outcome. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) was validated for this purpose since many years but it is still ongoing the debate over whether the use of different items in certain clinical conditions can be effective without affecting the validity of the nutritional status evaluation. The aim of this study was to assess the agreement between different versions of MNA in the evaluation of nutritional risk in elderly subjects. ⋯ The different versions of MNA gave similar results in the classifications of subjects and in comparison with nutritional and biochemical parameters. Moreover MNA versions that did not considered BMI seem to be more effective in singling out subjects with risk factors related to malnutrition (disability, reduced strength and calf circumference, anaemia).