Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Foods and Nutrition

Supervisor

Colleen O'Connor

Abstract

Although the Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care recommend all acute stroke patients be screened for malnutrition within 48 hours of admission to hospital using a valid screening tool, none have been validated for use in adult acute stroke patients. The Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool (CNST) tool has been validated within medicine and surgery patients. The purpose of this study is to estimate the level of agreement between the CNST and the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), a nutrition assessment tool, in a cohort of 58 acute adult stroke patients at the Southwestern Ontario Regional Stroke Centre in London. In this prospective study, the patient’s nurse conducted CNST within 48 hours of admission and research RD conducted the SGA. CNST had a weak agreement with SGA (K=0.23). Sensitivity was 24% and specificity was 97%. CNST may not be the best nutrition screening tool for acute stroke patients. Future work and nutritional implications are discussed.

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