Edinburgh Napier University

  Background: Two-thirds of Australians do not meet nutritional
recommendations. Unfortunately, nutritional screening is often overlooked in cardiac assessments, possibly because of competing time demands and perceived complexity of nutritional assessments. Aims: To establish the validity of a simple nutritional screening tool. Method: A six-item categorical nutritional screening tool was completed by acute coronary syndrome patients following hospital discharge. A multiple-pass diet assessment was subsequently administered by a dietitian blinded to the screening tool results. Dietary assessment results for the screening tool and the multiple-pass method were compared to determine agreement.
Results: 34 participants were recruited (76% male; mean age: 65±11 years). Sensitivity, specificity and Kappa were highest for categorical items (e.g. fruit, 100%, 69% K=0.69); lower for complex items (e.g. monounsaturated fats, 92%, 25% K=0.29); and good for identifying requirement for further dietary intervention (96%, 50%, K=0.54).
Conclusions: This brief tool shows potential to identify selected
nutritional variables and the need for further dietary intervention as part of cardiac patient assessment.