Standardising and Simplifying the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) for Its More General Application

The main questions the study aims to answer are:

• What is the most effective pre-GLIM screening approach?
• Which of the simple, globally accessible muscle mass measurement methods works the best in the context of GLIM?
• How does using simpler approaches to screening and muscle mass measurement affect the performance of GLIM in detecting Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) defined malnutrition and 1-year mortality?

Participants will be/have:

• asked questions about their recent food intake and possible non-volitional weight loss
• assessed for malnutrition with SGA
• weighed, and their height will be measured (if not already recorded)
• their muscle mass measured with a measuring tape (mid-upper arm circumference and calf circumference) and bioelectrical impedance
• their muscle function measured using hand grip strength
• have their patient records looked at to extract their weight and height data (if present), diagnoses, routine blood test results, abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan (if present), dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan (if present), 1-year mortality and personal identification code for documentation (the latter will be deleted when the study period is over).

Inclusion criteria

• Age of 18+ years
• Able and willing to sign the consent form
• Inpatients of the Tartu University Hospital
• Admitted within 72 hours before enrolment

Exclusion criteria

• Age of <18 years
• Inability or refusal to sign the consent form
• Pregnant or lactating women
• More than 72 hours passed since admission
• Patients isolating with an infection