Validity of four nutritional screening tools against subjective global assessment for inpatient adults in a low-middle income country in Asia

Background/objectives Hospital malnutrition is a common problem worldwide. This study aims to assess the validity of widely used nutritional screening tools for hospitalized adults in acute care settings in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Subjects/methods Participants in this study were 693 adult patients from six general public hospitals, in a multi-center survey undertaken in April and May, 2016. The criterion validity of the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Nutrition Risk Screening (NRS-2002) and Mini Nutrition Assessment—Short Form (MNA-SF), modified MST (MST combined with low BMI), and BMI as independent tools were assessed using Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) or low BMI (Results NRS-2002, modified MST (MST + low BMI), MUST, and BMI at 21 kg/m2 showed moderate/fair validity compared to the reference method (SGA or BMI). MST alone and MNA-SF showed poor validity due to low sensitivity (41.8 and 35.0% for MST and MNA-SF, respectively). Conclusions Based on specificity and sensitivity, the first choice for the most appropriate screening tool for use in Vietnam is the NRS-2002, following by the MST + BMI, MUST, and BMI alone at the cut-off value of 21 kg/m2. Further investigation on the feasibility and acceptability are required to determine the most appropriate screening tools for use within the Vietnamese context