Abstract 63: Risk of Malnutrition on Admission Predicts Mortality, Length of Hospital Stay and Hospitalisation Costs at 6 Months Post Stroke

INTRODUCTION Malnutrition is related with poor outcomes after stroke which justifies the need for screening to identify and treat nutritionally vulnerable patients; however, no nutrition screening tool has been validated for this population. This study aimed to establish the predictive validity of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) in stroke patients, using several outcomes: mortality, cumulative length of hospital stay (LOS) and hospitalisation costs at 6 months post stroke. METHODS Patients were recruited from consecutive admissions at 2 hyper-acute stroke units in London and were screened for their risk of malnutrition (low, medium and high) according to MUST. Outcomes were obtained for each patient through a national database that contains details of all hospital admissions. RESULTS Of 543 recruited patients, 537 were screened within 72h of admission with MUST, 51% were males and 87% had an ischaemic stroke, with a mean age of 74.7years (range 22-99). Results (see table) showed a strong ...