Comparison of Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition, version II and Mini Nutritional Assessment - Short Form in detecting nutritional risk among community-dwelling seniors in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Objective: The aim of the current study is to compare Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition, version II (SCREEN II) and Mini Nutritional Assessment - Short Form (MNA-SF), where each is used to identify nutritional risk prevalence among community-dwelling people aged 65 years and above in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Design: A cross-sectional study. Nutritional risk assessed using the nutritionist's risk rating, anthropometric measurements, functional indicators, cognitive parameters, SCREEN II and MNA-SF. Setting: The municipalities of Foca, East Sarajevo and Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Participants: Eight hundred twenty-one community-dwelling individuals aged >= 65 years. Results: The prevalence of high nutritional risk per nutritionist's risk rating, SCREEN II and MNA-SF was 26, 60, and 7 %, respectively. With the nutritionist's rating score >= 5 as the criterion, the MNA-SF cut-off point of <= 11 (indicating any possible risk) had poor sensitivity (55 center dot 7 %), specificity (46 center dot 6 %) and AUC (0 center dot 563; P = 0 center dot 024). When the criterion of >7 was applied, good sensitivity (95 center dot 3 %) and specificity (88 center dot 9 %) were obtained for the MNA-SF cut-off score of <= 7. AUC for this comparison was 0 center dot 742 (considered fair). Cut-off points of <54 (AUC = 0 center dot 816) and <50 (AUC = 0 center dot 881) for SCREEN II (indicating moderate to high risk) corresponded with good sensitivity (82 center dot 2 %; 80 center dot 9 %) and fair specificity (72 center dot 1 %; 75 center dot 0 %). Conclusion: MNA-SF may have a limited role in nutritional risk screening among community-dwelling seniors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. SCREEN II has promising results in regard to validity, but further studies are warranted.