Mini nutritional assessment scale-short form can be useful for frailty screening in older adults

Aim: Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) is used to assess nutritional status in older adults, but it is not known whether it can define frailty. It was aimed to investigate that the MNA-SF can identify frailty status defined by Fried criteria. Methods: 1003 outpatients aged 65 or older were included the study. All patients were performed comprehensive geriatric assessment. Frailty status was evaluated by Fried criteria: unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, low levels of activity, weakness and slowness. 1 point is assigned for each criterion: 0 points, not frail; 1-2 points, prefrail; ≥3 points, frail. If the total score of MNA-SF was <8, 8-11, >11, it was accepted that there was malnutrition, risk of malnutrition, and no malnutrition, respectively. Results: Of the 1003 outpatients, of whom the mean age was 74.2 ± 8.5 years, 313 participants (31.2%) were considered frail and 382 (38.1%) pre-frail. Among frail patients and pre-frail patients, 49.2 and 25.1% were at risk of malnutrition and 22.0% and 1.6% were malnourished, respectively. MNA-SF with a cut-off point of 11.0 had a sensitivity of 71.2% and a specificity of 92.8% to detect frail participants, and with a cut-off point of 13 had a sensitivity of 45.7% and a specificity of 78.3% to detect pre-frailty. The area under the curve of MNA-SF was 0.906 and 0.687 for the estimation of frailty and pre-frailty, respectively. Conclusion: MNA-SF can be useful for frailty screening in older adults.