Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hall, J. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hall, J. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Use of Internal Validity in the Construct of an Index of Undernutrition

John C. Hall, M.S. F.R.R.A.C.S.

University Department of Surgery, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia

An index of undernutrition (IOU) has been developed from a crosssectional study of 200 general surgical patients. The IOU was constructed using a ranking method based upon the relative values of anthropometric measurements (weight loss, mid-arm muscle area, mid-arm fat area) and serum protein concentrations (albumin, transferrin). The IOU was derived without reference to the incidence of adverse clinical events and took the form of a boolean cluster.

A subsequent prospective longitudinal study evaluated the IOU in 367 general surgical patients at the time of admission to hospital. The results of this study supported the validity of the IOU. There was no association between gender and IOU scores. However, patients with high scores were more likely to be elderly (p < 0.02), have cancer (p < 0.001), stay in hospital longer (p < 0.001), or experience an adverse clinical event after surgery (p < 0.001). In accord with other published indices of undernutrition, the association between the extent of undernutrition and the incidence of adverse clinical events was only of moderate diagnostic potential (overall accuracy 68%). This study demonstrates that it is possible to derive an index of protein-energy undernutrition that is independent of the incidence of adverse clinical events. (Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 14: 582-587, 1990)

Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Vol. 14, No. 6, 582-587 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/0148607190014006582
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?