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VALIDITY OF MALNUTRITION UNIVERSAL SCREENING TOOL (MUST) IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS: APPROPRIATE SCREENING TOOL IN HOSPITAL; MUST OR FULL-MNA?

Background: Since malnutrition of geriatric hospitalized patients has an impact on treatment and care management, the aim was to define the accuracy of Malnutrition Universal Screening Test (MUST) for malnutrition screening in the Iranian hospitalized elderly. Methods: In this cross-sectional study elderly 60 ≥ years (N= 192) were selected from two hospitals, anthropometric measures (BMI, MAC, and CC), laboratory test (Albumin), and nutrition tool (Full-MNA) applied and analyzed at P<0.05 level. Results: Elderly participants had a mean age of 68.86 ± 7.46 years and BMI 24.08± 4.64. Elderly patients (28%) lost their weight (>10%) in the last six months and loss of appetite observed in (33.4%) participants. In MUST tool rating, high-risk elderly patients for malnutrition were 33.3%. The AUC for MUST, according to Full-MNA was obtained 90.41%, with sensitivity 90.0% and specificity 73.25%. The MUST showed the strongest correlation with Full-MNA (r = -0.7) and BMI (r = - 0.51); but, the lowest correlation observed with Alb (r= -0.274). Most AUC was belonging to weight loss (0.96) and BMI (0.94). NConclusion: The MUST tool like full-MNA could diagnose malnutrition in geriatric patients in the hospital setting.