Mini Nutritional Assessment Scale-Short Form can be useful for frailty screening in older adults

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive characteristics of the participants

Age (years) (mean±SD)	74.2±8.5
Gender, % (female/male)	73.5/26.5
Education (years)	1.1±1.3
Body mass index (kg/m^2) (mean±SD)	33.1±42.0
Comorbidities (%)
• Hypertension	65.5
• Diabetes mellitus	35.2
• Congestive heart failure	6.5
• Coronary artery disease	13.6
• COPD	17.6
• Osteoarthritis	18.0
• Dementia	7.1
• Dysphagia	5.2
• Depression	24.4
Geriatric assessment (mean±SD)
• MMSE	24.3±4.6
• BADL	89.5±33.1
• IADL	17.3±7.4
• GDS	4.8±4.2
• POMA	27.4±8.6
• TUG (seconds)	14.1±9.7

Abbreviations: BADL, basic activity of daily living (0 [worst]–100 [best]); GDS, Geriatric Depression Scale (15 [worst]–0 [best]); IADL, instrumental activity of daily living (0 [worst]–23 [best]); MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination (0 [worst]–30 [best]); POMA, Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment (0 [worst]–28 [best]); TUG, timed up and go test; SD, standard deviation.

Table 2 Relationship between items of MNA-SF and frailty status

MNA-SF items	Robust (29.8%)	Pre-frail (38.1%)	Frail (32.1%)	P-value
Malnutrition parameters
MNA-SF scores	13.4±1.0	12.3±1.8	9.6±2.7	<0.001
Risk of malnutrition (%)	7.1	25.1	49.2	<0.001
Malnutrition (%)	0	1.6	22.0	<0.001
MNA-SF parameters
Decrease in food intake (%)
Severe decrease	1.3	1.8	14.1	<0.001
Moderate decrease	9.1	16.2	42.8
No decrease	89.6	81.9	43.1
Weight loss (%)
Weight loss greater than 3 kg	2.3	8.4	29.7	<0.001
Does not know	1.6	5.0	10.5
Weight loss between 1 and 3 kg	3.6	5.5	10.5
No weight loss	92.5	81.2	44.4
Mobility (%)
Bed or chair bound	0	0	4.5	<0.001
Able to get out of bed/chair but does not go out	0.3	5.5	30.4
Goes out	99.7	94.5	65.2
Suffered psychological stress or acute disease (%)
Yes	9.1	11.5	24.6	<0.001
No	90.9	88.5	75.4
Neuropsychological problems (%)
Severe dementia or depression	3.9	30.1	49.2	<0.001
Mild dementia	2.9	11.5	18.8
No psychological problems	93.2	58.4	32.0
Body mass index (BMI) (%)
BMI <19	0.3	0.3	3.5	<0.001
BMI 19 to <21	0.7	2.1	7.0
BMI 21 to <23	0.3	2.9	7.0
BMI ≥23	98.7	94.7	82.5

Abbreviations: MNA, Mini Nutritional Assessment; MNA-SF, MNA-Short Form.

Table 3 The sensitivity, specificity, NPVs, and PPVs of MNA-SF

	Cut-off	Diagnosis	Sensitivity (%) (Interval)	Specificity (%) (Interval)	PPV (%) (Interval)	NPV (%) (Interval)
MNA-SF	13.0	Pre-frail	45.71 (39.77–51.75)	78.32 (73.09–82.96)	67.37 (61.55–72.0)	59.57 (56.57–62.51)
	11.0	Frail	71.25 (65.89–76.20)	92.86 (89.39–95.47)	91.02 (87.07–93.85)	76.06 (72.69–79.14)

Abbreviations: MNA, Mini Nutritional Assessment; MNA-SF, MNA-Short Form; PPV, positive predictive value; NPV, negative predictive value.

Figure 1 Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis of the MNA-SF to detect (A) frailty and (B) pre-frailty.

Abbreviations: AUC, area under the curve; MNA, Mini-Nutritional Assessment; MNA-SF, MNA-Short Form.