Prospective validation of the modified mini nutritional assessment short-forms in the community, nursing home, and rehabilitation setting.

Objectives: To validate the modified Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) short-forms (MNA-SFs) with respect to agreement with full MNA classification in the target populations of the MNA.

Design: Prospective analysis.

Setting: Community, nursing home, rehabilitation.

Participants: Six hundred fifty-seven individuals aged 65 and older (75.3% female; mean age 82.3 ± 7.4).

Measurements: Classification agreement between full MNA score and MNA-SF scores.

Results: Agreement between the full MNA and classification using the MNA-SFs was 84.6% when the MNA-SF using body mass index (BMI) was applied and 81.4% when the MNA-SF using calf circumference (CC) was applied. The highest agreement of classification was found in the community setting (90.8% and 90.4%, respectively) and the lowest in the rehabilitation setting (72.4% and 71.4%, respectively). Both MNA-SFs tended to underestimate nutritional status, but that was significant only for the MNA-SF with CC.

Conclusion: The modified MNA-SFs represent a valuable tool for rapid and reliable nutritional screening.