Population-specific short-form mini nutritional assessment with body mass index or calf circumference can predict risk of malnutrition in community-living or institutionalized elderly people in taiwan.

A simple, reliable, noninvasive, and easy-to-use instrument is important for successful monitoring of emerging nutrition problems in elderly people. The objectives of this study were to determine whether adoption of population-specific body mass index (BMI) cutpoints would improve the predictive ability of the short-form Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and whether calf circumference could be an acceptable alternative to BMI in the short-form MNA without compromising its predictive ability. Using convenience sampling, the study recruited 301 community-living, 109 care center-living, and 68 nursing home-living elderly people, 65 years or older, as subjects.