Question

What is Nutrition screening? What steps are needed to be considered for reliable results? What are its goals? Discuss in detail.

Answer 1

Difference between Screening and Diagnosis

Diagnosis

The patient will meet the physical after he develops a signs and symptoms to conduct medical investigations to identify a particular Disease

Example: The 60 year old women approaches a oncologist with acompliants of a growth or lump in her breast, The doctor eventually perform history collection, physical examination, mammography and breast biopsy

Screening

The patient approaches the doctor as a preventive measure to conduct medical investigation to know the presence certain disease Eg: A women approaches the oncologist at the age of 30 with a family history of breast cancer to perform Clinical Breast examination.

Nutrition Screening

It is a initial step in identifying patients with the risk of nutrition deficent complications and to detect the patients with malnutrition who have not diagnosed before .

Steps Considered for Reliable results

I) Is the body mass idex less tha 20.5? Yes/No

2) Has the patient lost the weight within last 3 months? Yes/No

3) Has the patient dietary intake reduced with in last 3 months? Yes/No

4) Is the patient is in Intensive care unit? Yes/No

Interpretation

If any of the above mentioned questions are yes, the patient is subjected to further nutritional assessment

If all the answers are No, the patient is rescreened at weekly intervals.

Goals of Nutrition Screening

i) Prioritization of patients for the purpose of nutritional management.

II) To diagnose malnutrition in the bedside

III) Prevent nutrition related complication that affect patient prognosis