Original articleValidity assessment of the nutrition screening initiative checklist in older adults

SummaryObjectiveTo ascertain whether the NSI (Nutrition Screening Initiative Checklist) is a valid screening instrument for diagnosing nutritional risk in an older population from a medium-size city in the south of Brazil.MethodsThe study population comprised individuals aged 60 years or older selected from a population-based cross-sectional survey. Data collection was carried out at two different timepoints: first, the NSI (instrument under test) was applied and later a dietary recall (gold standard) based on the previous day. Validity analyses were performed based on sensitivity and specificity as well as the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve.ResultsA total of 183 older adults were studied. Agreement between the dietary recall and the NSI for positive and negative results was 54.6%.The sensitivity and specificity values were low for all cut-off points of the instrument. The area under the curve was 0.52 (95%CI: 0.44-0.62) for the cut-off point ≥6.ConclusionBased on sensitivity and specificity values, the NSI proved ineffective for application in the population studied.