2011 Volume 70 Issue 4 Pages 203-207
We determined the usefulness of evaluating nutrition at admission using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF), with the number of days spent in the hospital as a measure. The subjects were 236 patients aged 65 or older who were hospitalized in any department (excluding the Pediatric Department) of the Nihon University Nerima Hikarigaoka Hospital in May 2010 (31 days). Nutritional evaluation was performed both with the conventional assessment method (BMI, serum albumin [Alb], total cholesterol [TC], cholinesterase [ChE], and lymphocyte count) and the MNA-SF. The impact on the number of days spent in the hospital 14 (i.e., 14 days or more) was compared, and the relationships between values obtained by the MNA-SF and the evaluation items of the conventional assessment method were determined. Risk factors for the amount of time spent in the hospital being 14 days or longer were selected from the evaluation items of the MNA-SF. The possibility that the number of days spent in the hospital would be 14 or more was evaluated with the MNA-SF, as well as using the conventional assessment method. The evaluation items of the conventional assessment method were correlated with the values obtained using the MNA-SF. The most influential evaluation item of the MNA-SF on the number of days spent in the hospital was the walking status. The MNA-SF is useful for evaluating nutrition at admission using the number of days spent in the hospital as a measure, and it was suggested that the walking status at admission may influence the number of days spent in the hospital.
