TY - JOUR T1 - Screening for malnutrition in outpatients with pulmonary diseases JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p257 AU - Siebrig Schokker AU - J. Sebastiaan Vroegop AU - Luc H. Steenhuis AU - René Aalbers Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p257.abstract N2 - Background: Malnutrion has negative effects on patient outcome, in particular in patients with COPD. Recognition of malnutrition in an early phase might be beneficial for patients and screening for malnutrition in an outpatient setting might, therefore, be worthwhile.Aim: To determine the extent of malnutrition in outpatients with pulmonary diseases using different methods.Methods: All patients visiting our outpatient department of pulmonary diseases for the first time (period Oct. 2010 - Febr. 2011) were screened for malnutrition. Different methods were used to screen for malnutrition: body mass index (bmi), Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ), and a fat free mass measurement (FFM; bio-impedance by Bodystat® 1500).Results: Data of 121 outpatients (mean age 59, 49% male, 29% COPD) were analysed. Obesity (bmi > 30) was found in 26% of patients and underweight (bmi < 21 in COPD, and respectively <18.5 or <20 in non-COPD, aged ≤65 or >65 yrs) was found in 7 patients. The SNAQ score detected 9 and 3 patients being severely or moderately malnourished. FFM revealed 17 patients (14%) with malnutrition. Combining SNAQ and bmi resulted in detection of 17 malnourished patients. However, different patients are detected (Table 1).View this table:Table 1. Malnutrition: FFM vs. SNAQ + bmiA low FFM was found more often in patients with COPD (23%) and in females (21%).Conclusion: This study revealed malnutrition in 6 to 14% of outpatients with pulmonary diseases. Measurement of bmi only seems to underestimate nutritional problems. The discrepancies in detecting different patients emphasise the need for determining a gold standard for defining and measuring malnutrition. ER -