Endocrine Abstracts

Rationale: The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria was recently proposed as the world’s first diagnostic criteria for malnutrition in adults in hospital settings. The GLIM approach is based on the assessment of three phenotypic and two etiologic criteria, with diagnosis confirmed by any combination of one phenotypic and one etiologic criterion fulfilled. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence phenotypic criteria of GLIM in hospitalized patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on adult patients admitted to Hospital Universitario La Paz who were assessed by the Nutrition Unit staff through interconsultation between August 2019 and November 2020 (n=1036) GLIM criteria were applied. The phenotypic criteria (unintentional weight loss [UWL] defined as weight loss >5% within the last 6 months or >10% beyond 6 months; low BMI defined as <20 kg/m² or <22 kg/m² in participants younger and older than 70 years, respectively; and reduced muscle mass [RMM] from mid-upper arm circumference) were analyzed according to the age group, sex, and underlying pathology. The Chi-square test was used in statistical analysis.

Results: The prevalence of GLIM phenotypic criteria in the population was: 56.7% UWL, 30.1% low BMI, and 23.4% RMM. Regarding age, we found significant differences in RMM, with a greater prevalence of RMM in those <70 years (P<0.001). In relation to sex, there was a higher prevalence of UWL and RMM in men (P<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively), while low BMI criterion was more common in women (P=0.043). The underlying pathology had a significant effect on the phenotypic criteria of low BMI and RMM (P=0.001 and P=0.002, respectively), with the higher prevalence of low BMI in patients admitted for gastrointestinal diseases and RMM in those admitted for infections.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the age and gender of the hospitalized patients and their underlying pathology may have an impact on the prevalence of phenotypic GLIM criteria in this population.