The CP-MST, a malnutrition screening tool for institutionalized adult cerebral palsy patients

Progress in management of cerebral palsy (CP) patients has helped to increase life expectancy, but has also revealed nutritional consequences of this disability. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in long-term-institutionalized adult patients with CP and to propose specific malnutrition screening tool.

Practitioners at 15 specialized institutions hosting CP patients assessed their nutritional status and completed a binary questionnaire containing thirteen questions related to factors suspected of increasing malnutrition. Moderate malnutrition was defined as the following: loss of weight (%) ≥ 5 to <10 or BMI ≥ 16 to <18.5 or albuminemia (g/l) ≥ 30 to <35. Markers of malnutrition were identified by bivariate analysis (ANOVA and Chi-square). Stepwise factorial discriminant analysis was used to determine the best subset of parameters for use in computation of a screening score.

A total of 365 patients age 35.7 ± 9.0 years were identified. Malnutrition was severe in 25%, moderate in 33% and absent in 42% of cases. The four strongest factors associated with malnutrition were used to build a three-level malnutrition screening tool for CP adult patients (CP-MST) as follows: body weight < 40 kg (10 points), sitting position uncomfortable or impossible (4 points), partial or total help to feed (4 points) and suspicion of gastro-esophageal reflux (3 points), (P < 0.0001): A screening score higher than 10 points indicated high risk with malnutrition probability of 90%, and detected 37% of malnourished patients. Conversely, a score equal to 0 excluded severe malnutrition in 90% of cases.

In light of the fact that 58% of these patients were malnourished, the CP-MST would appear to be useful for detecting malnutrition, underlining the need for a multidisciplinary approach in CP patients.