Nutritional risk screening
Patients’ nutrition risk was evaluated by the local investigator within 96 h
of admission.
Nutrition risk was assessed by the SNST12 and a generic nutrition
screening tool, the MUST.9 Patients were considered at risk of
undernutrition on the basis of the SNST. The SNST assesses eight criteria,
of which the majority were recognised predictors or symptoms of
undernutrition: history of recent weight loss, body mass index (BMI), age,
level of SCI, presence of co-morbidity, skin condition, appetite and ability
to eat. Each step of screening has a score of up to 5 and the total score
reflects the patient’s degree of risk.
Patients who had an SNST scorep10 or a MUST score of 0 were considered
at low risk, and those with an SNSTX11 or MUSTX1 were considered at risk.