Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) for the diagnosis of malnutrition - a framework for consistent dietetic practice

Abstract

Malnutrition is an alarming and ongoing healthcare problem globally. Malnutrition has a negative impact on the individual patient, leading to poorer clinical outcomes and increased mortality, but also poses an economic burden on society. Proper identification and diagnostics are prerequisites for initiation of treatment. In 2019, the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition, a consensus-based global framework to uniformly diagnose malnutrition across populations, healthcare settings, and countries was published.Identifying and treating malnutrition is an interdisciplinary team effort. Nonetheless, the nutrition and dietetic profession is specifically trained for diagnosing and treating nutrition(-related) conditions, and therefore has a key role in the interdisciplinary team in implementing the GLIM framework in clinical practice. For the dietetic profession, GLIM offers a great opportunity for moving both the scientific and clinical knowledge of malnutrition management forward.While the GLIM framework has been extensively studied since its launch, various knowledge gaps still remain. For the dietetic profession, these knowledge gaps mainly relate to the GLIM implementation process, to the role of GLIM in relation to the Nutrition Care Process, and to treatment strategies for various nutrition-related conditions. In this opinion paper, we aimed to describe the rationale for implementing the GLIM framework in clinical dietetic practice, and propose a research agenda based on knowledge gaps regarding GLIM in relation to nutrition care from a dietetic point of view.