Martine Sealy, PhD student at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands, presented the results of the first ever systematic review on content validity of methods to assess malnutrition in patients with cancer, at the 36th annual European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) conference in Geneva.
The results of the study indicated that content validity of methods that assess malnutrition in patients with cancer varies widely. Less than one-sixth of all studied methods cover all domains of the ESPEN malnutrition definition. The PG-SGA is amongst the top three of methods that scored highest on content validity. Unfortunately, after publication of the ESPEN definition, content validity of methods in studies that assess malnutrition in patients with cancer has not improved.
During the ESPEN conference the study received attention from researchers from various countries, such as Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. The presented findings on content validity of malnutrition assessment may help the conversation on a minimum data set for nutritional and physical assessment in patients with various conditions including cancer.
The abstract can be viewed on the ESPEN website and will be published in Clinical Nutrition (Supplement). Furthermore, the abstract has been selected for publication in the ‘Sorgente journaal’ (in Dutch).
Click here to view the full poster.
