Assessing nutritional risk and its association with mortality in ICU patients using the modified NUTRIC score:...

The objective of this study was to assess nutritional risk in ICU patients using the modified Nutritional Risk in Critically ill (mNUTRIC) score and to evaluate its association with in-hospital mortality.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, including 584 ICU admitted patients. The mNUTRIC score was calculated, and the association between mNUTRIC-defined nutritional risk and mortality was evaluated using logistic regressions.

Of the total 584 patients, the mean 57.6 ± 15.3 years and 67.5% (n = 394) were female. The mean APACHE-II and SOFA scores were 18.9 ± 8.5 and 5.1 ± 1.9, respectively. The mean mNUTRIC score was 3.2 ± 2.0 with 69.9% of patients classified as low nutritional risk and 30.1% as high nutritional risk. Patients classified as having high nutritional risk by the mNUTRIC score had a high mortality rate (62.9%). In adjusted mortality model, low nutritional risk based on the mNUTRIC score was associated with significantly lower odds of mortality (aOR 0.51, 95% CI 0.28-0.91) after adjustment for APACHE-II score, the number of comorbidities, and ICU type. The area under the curve for discriminating mortality was 0.819.

The mNUTRIC score is a useful nutritional risk screening tool and demonstrates a strong prognostic association with mortality in critically ill ICU patients, supporting its applicability in a tertiary care hospital context in Pakistan.