Comparison of two malnutrition risk screening tools for spinal cord injured patients with early rehabilitation

English Keywords:Malnutrition  Spinal cord injuries  Nutrition screening tool

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objectives: To compare the effects of spinal nutrition screening tool(SNST) and malnutrition universal screening tool(MUST) on spinal cord injury(SCI) patients with early rehabilitationand to assess the value of the two tools. Methods: SCI patients who were enrolled in the department of rehabilitation from January 2016 to December 2016 were selected by using successive sampling method, with an avrage of 54.1±16.9 years, including 80 males and 21 females, 81 cases of cervical SCI and 20 cases of non-cervical SCI, Malnutrition risk of these patients was evaluated by SNST and MUST respectively in order to compare the values of the two nutrition evaluation methods. Results: Among the 101 patients selected, the proportion of medium risk screened out by SNST was 49.5% and by MUST was 44.5%, the proportion of high risk screened out by SNST was 17.8% and by MUST was 16.8%. There was no statistical difference between MUST and SNST (χ2=1.100, P=0.677). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence(＞60%) of malnutrition in SCI patients with early rehabilitation and no statistical difference between MUST and SNST, both are applicable for SCI patients.