Diagnostic performance of the Minimal Eating Observation and Nutrition Form - Version II (MEONF-II) and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) among hospital inpatients - a cross-sectional study

Eighty seven hospital inpatients were assessed for nutritional status with the 18-item MNA (considered as the gold standard), and screened with the NRS 2002 and the MEONF-II.The MEONF-II sensitivity (0.61), specificity (0.79), and accuracy (0.68) were acceptable. The corresponding figures for NRS 2002 were 0.37, 0.82 and 0.55, respectively. MEONF-II and NRS 2002 took five minutes each to complete. Assessors considered MEONF-II instructions and items to be easy to understand and complete (96-99%), and the items to be relevant (87%). For NRS 2002, the corresponding figures were 75-93% and 79%, respectively.The MEONF-II is an easy to use, relatively quick and sensitive screening tool to assess risk of undernutrition among hospital inpatients. With respect to user-friendliness and sensitivity the MEONF-II seems to perform better than the NRS 2002, although larger studies are needed for firm conclusions. The different scoring systems for undernutrition appear to identify overlapping but not identical patient groups. A potential limitation with the study is that the MNA was used as gold standard among patients younger than 65 years.Undernutrition is associated with poorer health, compromised ability to recover from medical conditions and increased mortality [1]. People at risk for or with manifest undernutrition therefore need to be identified in order to initiate prevention or interventions. Low Body Mass Index (BMI) and unintentional weight loss are considered key indicators of undernutrition [2], and together with change in food intake these indicators are associated with changes in function and clinical outcome [3]. This is reflected in commonly used nutritional screening tools such as the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002; [4]), the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA; [5,6] ), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST; [7]) and the recently developed Minimal Eating Observation and Nutrition Form - Version II (MEONF-II; [8,9]).In Sweden, it is recommended that