Key considerations for who, when, why, and how to screen for malnutrition.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Confusion and disagreement about malnutrition screening, how, when, why, who to screen, and which screening tool to use, have persisted since the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) established the malnutrition diagnosis in 2019. In this review, we discuss the purpose of malnutrition screening, presents recent validations of screening tools and how the choice of tools affects malnutrition prevalence within the GLIM framework.

RECENT FINDINGS: The screening for malnutrition should consider the results of recent validations of screening tools against the GLIM criteria, which reveal variations based on the specific tool, the population, and the setting. Likewise, the prevalence of malnutrition varies with the population and setting, and even how screening tools are applied in the process. Currently, all screening tools exclude patients who meet the GLIM criteria for a malnutrition diagnosis, but the extent of exclusion varies.

SUMMARY: In this review, we summarize recent prevalence and validation studies on screening tools related to GLIM. We argue that screening tools should align with GLIM malnutrition diagnosis criteria, need to be validated against GLIM, and discuss the requirement that a positive screening result is mandatory for a malnutrition diagnosis.