Application value of handgrip strength in nutrition assessment of elderly medical inpatients

Objective Toassess the application value of hand gripstrength in nutrition assessment of elderly medical inpatients. Methods A cross-sectional study was conductedin our hospital fromMay 2012 toDecember 2013, and 1343 patients were assessedby mini nutritional assessment short-form(MNA-SF) and their bloodbiochemical indicators in the 24 hours of admission, including HGS, height, weight, BMI, WC, LC, HB, TP, ALB, Cr, BUN, TG and TC, were measured. The correlation between HGS and nutritional indicators was analyzedand the dominant HGS cut points for malnutrition was estimated. Results Of all the elderly inpatients, 39.99% of them(men 40.49%, women 39.51%) hadmalnutrition by MNA-SF; The HGS, weight, BMI, WC, LC, ALB, TG and HB of malnutrition groupwere significantly lower than those of well nutrition group, but the age was significantly higher (P＜ 0.05); Pearson’s correlation analysis showedthat the dominant HGS was correlatedwith MNA-SF result (P＜ 0.05), and positively correlatedwith height, weight, BMI, WC, LC, ALB, TP, TG and HB (P＜ 0.05), and negatively correlatedwith age (P＜ 0.05). ROC curve analysis for dominant HGS and nutritional status sensitivity/specificity foundthat the area under the curve was more than 0.7, and the dominant HGS cut points for malnutrition were 20.8 kg for men and 16.1 kg for women by MNA-SF. Conclusion Elderly inpatients are associatedwith a greater incidence of malnutrition. HGS is a rapid, cost-effective and easy-to-use method, which is suitable for assessing nutritional status of elderly medical inpatients.