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CompletedNCT05546034Updated Sep 19, 2022

Nutrition Screening - Route to a More Practical Method

An observational study in Internal Medicine, sponsored by University of Tartu. Completed at 1 site in Estonia. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-09-19.

Sponsored by University of Tartu · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
300
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Observational study. Comparison of existing nutritional screening tools based on questionnaires with blood tests already performed on a routine basis.

No intervention undertaken.

Read the detailed description

Nutrition screening is of established benefit but is difficult to ensure in ordinary clinical practice. It is relatively labour intensive. The investigation aims to determine whether routinely collected laboratory data could provide comparable information without the need for personnel time. It is known that individual blood tests do not provide sufficient sensitivity or specificity but it is hypothesised that combinations of tests could do so.

Included subjects are those admitted to the University Hospital department of internal medicine. All are eligible other than those subject to protective isolation for infection control (COVID, etc). Data collection is in the form of questionnaires to permit the calculation of 3 tools widely used for screening for malnutrition and malnutrition risk, namely the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), the Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002) and the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). Nutritional status is documented by the patient's status according to the international definition provided by the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM).

The blood tests already performed on a routine basis are captured to go alongside the nutrition screening tools.

Analysis will aim to determine whether combinations of laboratory data can simulate or replicate the information provided by MUST and NRS2002.

02

Conditions studied

  • Internal Medicine
03

In context

Lead sponsor

University of Tartu is the lead sponsor of 45 studies on the registry; 15 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

In-patient in department of internal medicine

Inclusion criteria

In-patient in department of internal medicine

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Unable to complete questionnaire or in protective isolation

05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
300 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No

Interventions

  • Diagnostic testStandard nutrition screening tools to be compared with routine blood tests

    None other than completion of questionnaires one of which would be done in routine practice

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Evaluation of new nutrition risk screening tool (devised from 200 patients) by validation in 100 contemporaneous patients in comparison with established screening tools (MUST, NRS-2002 and SGA) and malnutrition defined by GLIM.

    Established tools for screening and assessing nutritional status are utilised. These are the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), the Nutrition Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002), the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) and the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM). Data from laboratory testing that has already been performed on these patients is extracted from their hospital records. It is hypothesised that multivariate analysis of indicative parameters will identify 6 to 12 tests that can be combined (with appropriate weighting) into a new predictive score. 300 sets of patient data will be divided on a randomised basis into a group of 200 from whom the prospective new scoring system will be devised, and a group of 100 in whom the score will be tested for validity against NRS-2002.

    Time frame: Within 6 months of completion of recruitment

Secondary outcomes

  1. Validation of new score against GLIM

    The intended new score will be tested against GLIM. The primary validation is against NRS-2002 as the score is intended as a screening tool for high risk of malnutrition, but it is important to determine whether it is also a test of established malnutrition.

    Time frame: Within 6 months of completion of recruitment

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Tartu Ülikooli Kliinikum
    Tartu, Tartumaa 50406, Estonia
08

References and documents

Study documents

  • Study protocol · Apr 28, 2021

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 19, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05546034
Lead sponsor
University of Tartu
Responsible party
Alastair Forbes (Visiting Professor, University of Tartu) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 19, 2022
Start date
Sep 6, 2021
Primary completion
Mar 23, 2022
Completion
Mar 23, 2022
Last update
Sep 19, 2022

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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