Usefulness of the MNA in the long-term and acute-care settings within the United States

The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a tool that was developed for use with elders to provide rapid assessment of nutritional risk. Although this screening tool has been validated and frequently used in longterm and acute-care settings in Europe, the MNA has not been used extensively within the United States. The MNA may need to be validated for use within U.S. nursing and acute-care facilities because validity may be affected by the acuity of illness, the use of aggressive nutrition support, which makes the scoring of the MNA difficult, and the age of patients admitted for care (acute care). Additionally, in most long-term care settings, a specific screening tool (Minimum Data Set) is already required to assess resident function including nutritional risk. The MNA may be more useful in an assisted living facility, where nutrition screening and assessment tools are not currently in place, yet maintenance of functional status is important to prevent transfer to a nursing facility.