PT55. - CAN NUFFE-TR BE USED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO MNA IN ASSESSING THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF HOSPITALIZED OLDER ADULTS?

PT55.

CAN NUFFE-TR BE USED AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO MNA IN ASSESSING THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF HOSPITALIZED OLDER ADULTS?

H. Kamarlı Altun¹, G. Suna^1,*

¹Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Türkiye

Rationale: Although malnutrition is a common condition among hospitalised older adults, it is often underdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to determine whether the Turkish version of the Nutritional Form for the Elderly (NUFFE-TR) could be used as an alternative to the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) to assess the nutritional status of hospitalised older adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 313 hospitalized older adults (mean age:74.4±6.3 years; Female:49.8%, Male:50.2%). Sociodemographic data, weight and height measurements, and a questionnaire including NUFFE-TR and MNA were used to assess nutritional status. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the scale scores. Logistic regression was used to identify significant predictors of malnutrition. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the discriminative ability of NUFFE-TR compared to the reference standard MNA.

Results: According to MNA, 24.6% of the participants were malnourished, whereas NUFFE-TR identified 45.7% as malnourished. A moderate, negative correlation was found between the total scores of NUFFE-TR and MNA (r = -0.574, p<0.001). Appetite status (p<0.001 for both scales) and single status (p=0.022 for NUFFE-TR; p= 0.047 for MNA) significantly influenced malnutrition status as assessed by both tools. In a model adjusted for gender, marital status, and appetite, NUFFE-TR explained approximately 29.7% of the variance in malnutrition compared to MNA. ROC analysis showed that NUFFE-TR had excellent discriminatory power in identifying malnutrition compared to the MNA (AUC=0.83).

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Conclusion: NUFFE-TR is a reliable tool that correlates well with MNA and effectively predicts malnutrition in hospitalized older adults. Due to its simplicity and strong diagnostic performance, NUFFE-TR appears to be a promising screening tool for routine nutritional assessment in geriatric clinical settings.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared