Application of arm circumference to nutritional risk screening among cancer patients / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To examine the application of arm circumference to evaluating the nutritional risk among cancer patients, so as to provide insights into nutritional risk screening among cancer patients.@*Methods@#Totally 332 cancer patients hospitalized in the Department of Oncology of The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from September 2020 to March 2021 were selected as the study subjects. Subjects'demographic data and disease history were collected, and the height, body weight, arm circumference and serum nutritional indicators were measured. The indicators related to nutritional risk were identified by logistic regression models. The value of arm circumference in assessment of nutritional risk was examined among cancer patients using the receiver operating characteristic ( ROC ) curve analysis, and the Nutritional Risk Screening ( NRS 2002 ) scores were used as the gold standard.@*Results@#The subjects included 188 males ( 56.63% ) and 144 females ( 43.37% ), and had a mean age of ( 51.62±12.31 ) years. The detection rate of nutritional risk was 36.75% among the subjects according to NRS 2002, with 29.78% in males and 45.83% in females. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified arm circumference as an independent factor affecting the nutritional risk among cancer patients ( P<0.05 ). The area under the ROC curve, cut-off, sensitivity and specificity of arm circumference in predicting nutritional risk were 0.857 ( 95%CI 0.795-0.918, P<0.001 ), 24.4 cm, 83.3% and 78.6% among male cancer patients, and 0.727 ( 95%CI 0.643-0.810, P<0.001 ), 23.9 cm, 78.2% and 57.6% among female cancer patients, respectively.@*Conclusions@#Arm circumference is feasible for screening nutritional risk among cancer patients. The cut-off value of nutritional risk was determined by arm circumference less than 24.4 cm in men and less than 23.9 cm in women with good accuracy.