Nutritional screening tools for HIV-infected patients: Implications for elderly patients

Abstract

Background: Nutrition is a crucial issue for elderly HIV-infected patients. Screening tools ("DETERMINE your nutrition health checklist" [NSI], the Mini-Nutritional Assessment [MNA], the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool [MUST] test, and the modified version of the Subjective Global Assessment [SGA]-HIV) might not detect problems in visceral fat accumulation, visceral protein loss, and lipodystrophy in elderly HIV-positive populations. Methods: Literature review of articles in English, French, and Spanish published in Medline and Cochrane databases through January 2010. Results: New studies question the use of body mass index (BMI) and weight loss as proxies for nutritional problems in HIV-positive patients. In the case of elderly HIV-infected patients, screening tools to deal with the aforementioned issues are currently being investigated. Conclusion: The authors suggest that a unique nutritional screening test that contains measures including BMI, weight loss, waist-to-hip (W/H) ratio, and mid-arm circumference may be able to detect nutritional problems in elderly patients infected with HIV. Further trials combining these 4 anthropometric measures in elderly HIV-infected patients are needed. © The Author(s) 2010.