Nutrition in clinical practice : official publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
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The Royal College of Physicians recently introduced the 4AT (Alertness, Abbreviated Mental Test-4, Attention, and Acute change or fluctuating course) for screening cognitive impairment and delirium. Here, we examined the association of the 4AT with nutrition status in patients admitted to a hospital with hip fractures between January 1, 2016, and June 6, 2019. ⋯ Among older adults admitted with hip fractures, high 4AT scores, which are suggestive of cognitive impairment and delirium, identified patients at increased malnutrition risk. These findings lend further support for the use of 4AT to identify patients who are at increased health risk.
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This pilot study evaluated nutrition status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes among outpatients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Data were collected from 19 patients (18 males, 1 female) during 3 time points: once before chemoradiotherapy (CRT) initiation and 1 and 3 months after CRT. Nutrition status was evaluated using the Scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA). ⋯ Compared with pretreatment, patients reported more severe problems with chewing, swallowing, sticky saliva, dry mouth, speech, social eating, and taste and smell sensations at 1-month follow-up, although issues with dry mouth persisted 3 months post treatment (P = .003). In conclusion, malnourished patients reported having worse HRQOL symptoms compared with well-nourished patients. Routine nutrition and psychosocial assessment through PG-SGA and EORTC tools might help identify patients in need of nutrition and psychosocial care.