ObjectivesBody weight and muscle mass loss following an acute hospitalization in older patients may be influenced by malnutrition and sarcopenia among other factors. This study aimed to assess the changes in body weight and composition from admission to discharge and the geriatric variables associated with the changes in geriatric rehabilitation inpatients.DesignRESORT is an observational, longitudinal cohort.Setting and ParticipantsGeriatric rehabilitation inpatients admitted to geriatric rehabilitation wards at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia (N = 1006).MethodsChanges in body weight and body composition [fat mass (FM), appendicular lean mass (ALM)] from admission to discharge were analyzed using linear mixed models. Body mass index (BMI) categories, (risk of) malnutrition (Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition), sarcopenia (European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People), dependence in activities of daily living (ADL), multimorbidity, and cognitive impairment were tested as geriatric variables by which the changes in body weight and composition may differ.ResultsA total of 1006 patients [median age: 83.2 (77.7–88.8) years, 58.5% female] were included. Body weight, FM (kg), and FM% decreased (0.30 kg, 0.43 kg, and 0.46%, respectively) and ALM (kg) and ALM% increased (0.17 kg and 0.33%, respectively) during geriatric rehabilitation. Body weight increased in patients with underweight; decreased in patients with normal/overweight, obesity, ADL dependence and in those without malnutrition and sarcopenia. ALM% and FM% decreased in patients with normal/overweight. ALM increased in patients without multimorbidity and in those with malnutrition and sarcopenia; ALM% increased in patients without multimorbidity and with sarcopenia.Conclusions and ImplicationsIn geriatric rehabilitation, body weight increased in patients with underweight but decreased in patients with normal/overweight and obesity. ALM increased in patients with malnutrition and sarcopenia but not in patients without. This suggests the need for improved standard of care independent of patients’ nutritional risk.
Prehabilitation trajectories contribute to improving lifestyle choices and influencing risk factors to reduce postoperative complications, the overall hospital stay and lower health care costs. This paper gives an overview of the best current evidence on the role, scope, added value and expertise of nurses during the prehabilitation trajectory of patients with GI cancer, consisting of relevant nursing diagnosis, interventions and outcomes within four specific domains. The methods used are literature searches that were performed between June 2022 and January 2023, with a final search on January 25th. The search strategy included four steps, following the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual. Two researchers contributed to the study selection process. The results were categorized according to the domains of multimodal prehabilitation. The Handbook of Carpenito was used to link the results to nursing diagnoses, interventions and nurse sensitive outcomes.
This study evaluates the concurrent validity of five malnutrition screening tools to identify older hospitalized patients against the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) diagnostic criteria as limited evidence is available. The screening tools Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), Mini Nutritional Assessment—Short Form (MNA-SF), and the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment—Short Form (PG-SGA-SF) with cut-offs for both malnutrition (conservative) and moderate malnutrition or risk of malnutrition (liberal) were used. The concurrent validity was determined by the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and the level of agreement by Cohen’s kappa. In total, 356 patients were included in the analyses (median age 70 y (IQR 63–77); 54% male). The prevalence of malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria without prior screening was 42%. The conservative cut-offs showed a low-to-moderate sensitivity (32–68%) and moderate-to-high specificity (61–98%). The PPV and NPV ranged from 59 to 94% and 67–86%, respectively. The Cohen’s kappa showed poor agreement (k = 0.21–0.59). The liberal cut-offs displayed a moderate-to-high sensitivity (66–89%) and a low-to-high specificity (46–95%). The agreement was fair to good (k = 0.33–0.75). The currently used screening tools vary in their capacity to identify hospitalized older patients with malnutrition. The screening process in the GLIM framework requires further consideration.