Application of the new ESPEN definition of malnutrition in geriatric diabetic patients during hospitalization: A multicentric study.

Background & Aims: The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) recently provided new diagnosis criteria of malnutrition and called to confirm those criteria in specific populations. The aims of our study were 1) to determine the prevalence of malnutrition according to the new ESPEN definition in elder hospitalized diabetic patients, and 2) to evaluate whether this new diagnosis of malnutrition predicted clinical outcomes in these patients.

Methods: 1014 hospitalized diabetic patients (≥65 years) from 35 hospitals in Spain were screened for being at risk of malnutrition using the short version of the Mini Nutritional Assessment. Subsequently, at risk individuals were considered malnourished if they met at least one of the two options: 1) body mass index (BMI) < 18.5 kg/m, or 2) unintentional weight loss >5% of their body weight with reduced BMI (<20 kg/m in subjects younger than 70 years or <22 kg/m in subjects older than 70 years).

Results: The new ESPEN definition, with MNA-SF as initial screening, identified 68 malnourished geriatric individuals with diabetes (6.73% of the cohort). Additionally, malnutrition lengthened the hospital stay, increased 2.7 times the odds of dying in hospital, and decreased to one third the odds of being discharged home.

Conclusions: Our study confirms that the new ESPEN definition for the diagnosis of malnutrition is a reliable tool that is capable of predicting clinical outcomes in a large population of elder hospitalized individuals with diabetes.