CONUT: a tool to assess nutritional status. First application in a primary care population

Maria Salinas; Emilio Flores; Alvaro Blasco; Maite López-Garrigós; Carmen Puche; Alberto Asencio; Carlos Leiva-Salinas

doi:10.1515/dx-2020-0073

Article

CONUT: a tool to assess nutritional status. First application in a primary care population

Maria Salinas , Emilio Flores , Alvaro Blasco , Maite López-Garrigós , Carmen Puche , Alberto Asencio and Carlos Leiva-Salinas

Published/Copyright: August 31, 2020

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From the journal Diagnosis Volume 8 Issue 3

Abstract

Objectives

Malnutrition is an unfavorable prognostic factor associated with an increase in mortality, hospital stays, readmissions and resources consumption. The aim was to screen primary care patients for risk of malnutrition by using the control nutritional (CONUT) score, calculated through total lymphocytes count, serum albumin and total cholesterol, when the three markers were requested, and to compare results between primary care centers (PCC).

Methods

The clinical laboratory located in a 370-bed suburban University Community Hospital serves the Health Department inhabitants (2,34,551), attended in nine PCC. The laboratory information system (LIS) automatically calculated the CONUT score in every primary care patient over 18 years old, when all three laboratory markers were ordered by the General Practitioner. For all primary care patients, we collected demographic data, CONUT index and PCC. We classified results by PCC, and compared them.

Results

The clinical laboratory received 74,743 requests from primary care. The CONUT score was calculated in 7,155 (12.28%) patients. Nine hundred seventy-six (13.6%) were at risk of malnutrition according to the CONUT score, mainly male (p<0.01) and over 65 (p<0.01). Detected cases of malnutrition were all mild, except 48 patients (4.9%) with moderate, and one (0.1%) with severe risk. The percentage of patients at risk of malnutrition was not significantly different among PCC, with the exception of one with patients at lower malnutrition risk.

Conclusions

It is possible to use CONUT score as a front-line population-wide laboratory marker to screen for the risk for malnutrition in primary care patients that was lower in one PCC.

Keywords: control nutritional (CONUT); laboratory; malnutrition; primary care; screening

Corresponding author: Maria Salinas, PhD, Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Universitario de San Juan, Carretera Alicante-Valencia, s/n 03550, San Juan de Alicante, Alicante, Spain; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pathology, Universidad Miguel Hernandez, Elche, Spain, Phone: +34 965169463, Fax: +34 965938383, E-mail: salinas_mar@gva.es

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their deep gratitude to all the clinical laboratory staff.

Research funding: None declared.
Author contributions: MS, EF, AB, ML-G, CP and CL-S researched literature and conceived the study. EF and ML-G was involved in protocol development and data analysis. MS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. CL-S reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Ethical approval: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.
Guarantor: Maria Salinas (MS).

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Received: 2020-05-28

Accepted: 2020-07-13

Published Online: 2020-08-31

Published in Print: 2021-08-26

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2020-0073

Keywords for this article

control nutritional (CONUT); laboratory; malnutrition; primary care; screening