Abstract
Adult hospitalized patients are at risk for malnutrition. The sensitivity and specificity of screening tools were compared with Subjective Global Assessment. Methods included a systematic review using PubMed, CINAHL Plus, and EMBASE through April 2014. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies method. The results showed that the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool, Nutrition Risk Screening-2002, and Malnutrition Screening Tool were most frequently tested. The specificity was generally good (>80%), but sensitivity was variable. Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool, Nutrition Risk Screening-2002, and Malnutrition Screening Tool are screening tools that consider population characteristics and risk cut points and are easy to administer.