Publication: Malnutrition screening among cancer patients in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
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Date
2021
Authors
Ching, Choo Yi
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Abstract
Malnutrition is one of the nutritional issues that we should concern among cancer patients and it is negatively associated with poor clinical outcomes. Nutrition screening has been supported to work as the foremost step in identifying the nutritional risk of cancer patients. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the accuracy of Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) in detecting malnutrition risk among cancer patients in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). The MST was compared against scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (scored PG-SGA) as gold standard. 94 respondents who full-filled the inclusion criterion and interested, admitted to HUSM and Department Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Oncology were recruited through convenience sampling. Socio-demographic characteristics and clinical data of respondents were obtained from their medical record. Weight and height were measured using dial mechanical weighing scale with height rod which provide in respective setting. Two sets of questionnaires - MST and scored PG-SGA were then subsequently used to interview respondents. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. Out of 94 respondents, 62.8% was female while 37.2% was male. 72.3% was hospitalised whereas 27.7% was from outpatient. Highest proportion of respondents (40.4%) was diagnosed with hematologic cancer. According to scored PG-SGA, 64.9% of respondents was classified as malnourished while 35.1% of them was classified as well-nourished. Significantly higher proportion of malnourished respondents was from inpatients (p-0.019). Malnourished respondents had significantly lower body weight, BMI and higher percentage of weight loss for the past 6 months (/?<0.001). MST score and PG-SGA score were also significantly higher among malnourished respondents (p<0.001). Next, MST yielded 72.1% sensitivity, 93.9% specificity, 95.7% positive predictive value and 64.6% negative predictive value. There is statistically significant, positive and moderately strong correlation between MST score and PG-SGA score (r - 0.734, p<0.001). In conclusion, MST is recommended as screening tool in predicting malnutrition risk among cancer patients.