THE GLIM CRITERIA TO IDENTIFY MALNUTRITION IN PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL SETTINGS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.

Abstract

Malnutrition is recognized as one of the main public health problems in hospitals. Therefore, the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) has established a global consensus on the criteria for diagnosing malnutrition in adults in hospital settings. This study aimed to identify the ability of the GLIM criteria as a tool to identify malnutrition in hospital settings patients and to compare the prevalence of malnutrition identified by GLIM criteria with other screening and/or nutritional assessment methods. This was a systematic review. Searches were performed using MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and Virtual Health Library, based on established descriptors. The included studies were observational and used screening and/or nutritional assessment tools to compare the prevalence of malnutrition and predictive capacity identified by GLIM criteria in in hospital settings patients aged >18 years. Twelve studies were included in this systematic review. A total of 4066 individuals with different pathologies and clinical conditions participated in the included studies. The prevalence of malnutrition, according to the GLIM criteria, ranged from 16% to 80%. In four studies, the prevalence of malnutrition based on GLIM was higher than that of the other indicators. Six studies evaluated the predictive ability and identified satisfactory sensitivity and specificity. Four studies found low to high agreement between GLIM and the other methods. The GLIM criteria can identify malnutrition and find a high prevalence and severity of malnutrition in the hospital setting, proving to be a sensitive and specific instrument, with good agreement between screening and nutritional assessment methods. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.