Screening for Undernutrition in Geriatric Practice: Developing the Short-Form Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF)
Laurence Z. Rubenstein, Judith O. Harker, Antoni Salvà, Y. Guigoz, Bruno Vellas
The Journals of Gerontology Series A
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a validated assessment instrument for nutritional problems, but its length limits its usefulness for screening. We sought to develop a screening version of this instrument, the MNA-SF, that retains good diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: We reanalyzed data from France that were used to develop the original MNA and combined these with data collected in Spain and New MEXICO: Of the 881 subjects with complete MNA data, 151 were from France, 400 were from Spain, and 330 were from New MEXICO: Independent ratings of clinical nutritional status were available for 142 of the French subjects. Overall, 73.8% were community dwelling, and mean age was 76.4 years. Items were chosen for the MNA-SF on the basis of item correlation with the total MNA score a