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Researchers Evaluate Shorter Nutrition Assessment Tool

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Clinics can save time and resources with the use of an abbreviated nutrition assessment tool

Although maintaining a healthy diet is important for all cancer patients, managing the time and resources involved with testing cancer patients for malnutrition can be a challenge for clinics.

“We need a tool in place that’s easy, quick and effective because otherwise it’s difficult to identify which patients need the most help,” said dietitian Pauline Darling, the senior author of the study.

Therefore, researchers evaluated an abbreviated version of the recommended nutrition assessment tool, Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), and discovered that the shorter test, called the abPG-SGA, is just as effective.

For the study, Darling and colleagues examined 90 patients receiving chemotherapy at St. Michael’s Hospital outpatient oncology clinic. According to study results, 36% of the 90 patients were malnourished. Furthermore, researchers determined that the abPG-SGA was not only the best tool for detecting patients who required additional nutrition assessment, but it was also the best tool for reducing unnecessary referrals to a dietitian.

The study appeared online in Nutrition and Cancer.

Source: St. Michael’s Hospital.