Self-screening for malnutrition risk in outpatient inflammatory bowel disease patients using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool

Background: Malnutrition is under-recognized in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Aims To determine if patient can self-screen nutritional risk using the Malnutrition Universal Screening tool (MUST). Methods Adult IBD patients self-assessed nutritional risk with the MUST tool. Health care practitioners (HCPs) assessed risk using the MUST tool and the Nutritional Risk Score 2002 (NRS-2002). Chance-corrected agreement was determined. We also examined the relationship between nutritional status and disease activity. Results For patient-administered MUST screening, chance-corrected agreement 上 (95% CI) was 0.83 (CI 0.74, 0.92) with HCP MUST screening among low-risk and ii combined medium- and high-risk patients. Similar results were found when compared to NRS-2002. All patients were able to screen easily. Disease activity was significantly correlated with nutritional risk for Crohn's but not ulcerative colitis. Conclusion Patients can accurately and easily self-screen malnutrition risk using MUST. We require further work to understand how self-screening can influence nutritional management plans.M.Sc