Nutritional evaluation assessment card to identify nutritional risk: a proposal

Area of Science:

• Clinical Nutrition
• Surgical Patient Care
• Public Health

Background:

• Malnutrition significantly increases post-surgical complication rates.
• Existing nutritional screening tools often rely on subjective parameters.
• Early detection of malnutrition is crucial for improving surgical outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the utility of the CEN 16 nutritional assessment tool.
• To compare CEN 16 with subjective global assessment (SGA) in surgical patients.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of objective and subjective parameters in nutritional screening.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive, comparative, and transversal study.
• Involved 72 surgical patients aged 18-60.
• Utilized anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, and dietary parameters for assessment.

Main Results:

• CEN 16 identified 9.8% well-nourished, 80.6% moderate malnutrition, and 9.7% severe malnutrition.
• SGA identified 52.8% well-nourished, 38.9% moderate malnutrition, and 8.3% severe malnutrition.
• CEN 16 revealed a higher prevalence of malnutrition compared to SGA.

Conclusions:

• The CEN 16 assessment tool, incorporating objective and subjective parameters, is more effective than SGA.
• This comprehensive approach aids in the timely and accurate detection of nutritional status in surgical patients.
• Implementing CEN 16 can enhance clinical practice for nutritional assessment.