The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index predicts hospital length of stay and in-hospital weight loss in elderly patients.

Summary Background & aims Nutritional derangements are common in elderly patients, but how nutritional risk affects outcome in this subset of hospital inpatients deserves further investigation. We evaluated the impact of nutritional risk on length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital weight loss (WL) in elderly patients (>65yrs). Methods Nutritional risk was assessed by the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) in a prospective multicentre hospital-based cohort study. The outcomes were LOS and in-hospital WL. Results In the whole sample ( N  = 667), the prevalence of high (GNRI  N  = 583). It was independently associated with prolonged LOS (OR = 1.80; 95%CI: 1.03–3.06) and was more frequent among cancer patients (OR = 1.88; 95%CI: 1.09–3.24), in patients with a high nutritional risk (OR = 2.23; 95%CI: 1.20–4.14) or those admitted to surgical units (OR = 1.77; 95%CI: 1.02–3.05). Conclusions Nutritional risk assessed by the GNRI on admission, predicts LOS and in-hospital WL in elderly patients.