The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends malnutrition screening tool (MST) for all adults
Ingvild Paur1, Guro Berge Smedshaug2, Brita Haugum2
1Department of Non-Communicable Diseases, Division of Prevention and Public Health, Norwegian Directorate of Health, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Advisory Unit on Disease-related Undernutrition, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Dept. of Clinical Services, Division of Cancer Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Background & Aims:
Malnutrition is underdiagnosed and undertreated in Norway. In a revision of a national guideline on malnutrition, the Norwegian Directorate of Health aimed for a harmonization and standardization of the malnutrition screening practice, including a recommendation of one malnutrition screening tool to be used among all adults in Norwegian health and care services.
Methods:
A working group was appointed by the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Evidence-based practice, a pragmatic decision-making process based on a literature review, the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), and the DECIDE decision-making model was used as a guidance in order to convert evidence into recommendations.
Results:
The criteria and properties of the four most frequently validated malnutrition screening tools were identified and ranked by the working group. The tools were prioritized in the following order: 1: Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), 2: Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), 3: Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002), and 4: Mini-Nutritional Assessment short form (MNA).
Conclusions:
The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends use of MST for screening for malnutrition among all adults (≥18 years), across all health care settings, and diagnoses or conditions in Norway.
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