Exploring the screening methods, prevalence, and risk factors of malnutrition in multiple sclerosis: A scoping review

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be predisposed to malnutrition as several malnutrition risk factors are common among this group; however, evidence on malnutrition in MS is sparse. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to explore what is known about malnutrition in MS.

A scoping review was performed in 5 databases (Ovid Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central, Scopus, and the Web of Science Core Collection) in February 2024. Studies were included if they defined how malnutrition was evaluated or used a validated malnutrition screening tool among people with MS.

Seven studies reported the prevalence at risk for malnutrition and eight reported the prevalence with malnutrition using several different methods to assess or screen for malnutrition including the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Patient-generated SGA, Mini Nutrition Assessment, Nutrition Risk Screening 2002, Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition criteria, serum albumin, and International Classification of Diseases taxonomy. One study reported prevalences based on two different methods; therefore, eight prevalences of risk for malnutrition and nine prevalences with malnutrition are reported. The reported prevalences at risk for malnutrition were 87.8 % and 85.5 %, 69.3 %, 57 %, 53.9 %, 24.8 %, 6.5 %, and 5.5 %. The reported prevalences of malnutrition were 15.5 % and 12.2 %, 13.4 %, 11.8 %, 10.4 %, 10.3 %, 1.6 %, 1.6 %, and 0.7 %. Several risk factors for malnutrition were reported including disability burden, age, and progressive subtype; however, bubble plots showed no associations for baseline age, sex distribution, MS duration, body mass index, or disability status. One study observed that malnutrition was associated with lower physical and mental quality of life.

The available evidence suggests that malnutrition may be common among people with MS; however, given the wide variation in reported prevalences more studies are needed to better evaluate the scope of malnutrition in MS.