Optimizing Malnutrition Risk Detection in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Longitudinal Analysis of Serial Nutritional Screening Tools.

Malnutrition prevalence in IBD patients in sustained clinical remission increased substantially over six months.

• At baseline, 25.7% of patients were malnourished according to ESPEN criteria, 9% per GLIM criteria, and 7.5% exhibited low FFMI.
• After six months, malnutrition prevalence increased to 53% per ESPEN criteria, 16.6% per GLIM criteria, and 16.6% for low FFMI.
• The study enrolled 66 IBD patients (32 Crohn's disease; 34 ulcerative colitis) in a prospective, single-center cohort design.
• All patients were in sustained clinical remission at enrollment.

MUST and SaskIBD-NR consistently exhibited the highest specificity for malnutrition detection among the five nutritional screening tools evaluated.

• MUST and SaskIBD-NR showed the highest specificity at baseline, at 6 months, and for persistent malnutrition across ESPEN, GLIM, and low FFMI reference standards.
• Five nutritional screening tools (NSTs) were compared: MUST, SaskIBD-NR, and three others not individually named in the abstract.
• Tools were evaluated for sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and accuracy at both time points.

Serial (repeated) administration of nutritional screening tools markedly improved specificity compared to single-point assessments.

• The improvement in specificity was observed across all five nutritional screening tools when administered serially versus at a single time point.
• Serial assessments were performed at baseline and after six months.
• This improvement was demonstrated using ESPEN criteria, GLIM criteria, and low FFMI as reference standards.
• A sensitivity analysis using low FFMI as a reference standard was performed to validate findings.

Malnutrition is frequently under-investigated during remission in IBD patients despite its significant impact on clinical outcomes and quality of life.

• The study was motivated by the gap in nutritional monitoring during IBD remission phases.
• Body composition analysis was performed alongside NST administration at both time points.
• The study used both ESPEN and GLIM diagnostic criteria as reference standards for malnutrition.
• Fat-free mass index (FFMI) was used as an additional reference measure for body composition-based malnutrition detection.

The study was designed as a prospective, single-center cohort study administering five nutritional screening tools at two time points six months apart.

• NSTs and body composition analysis were performed at baseline and after six months in IBD outpatients.
• Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and accuracy of NSTs were evaluated at both time points.
• Repeated assessments were compared to single-point assessments for diagnostic performance.
• A sensitivity analysis using low FFMI as a reference was also performed in addition to ESPEN and GLIM criteria comparisons.