The ability of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) to diagnose protein-energy malnutrition in patients requiring vascular surgery: A validation study

Identifying nutritional deficits and implementing appropriate interventions in patients requiring vascular surgery is challenging due to the paucity of appropriate screening and assessment tools in this group. This retrospective study aimed to determine the validity of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) in identifying protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) in inpatients admitted to a vascular surgery unit, using the PG-SGA as the comparator. Diagnostic accuracy and consistency were determined between the GLIM and the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) global rating. The GLIM determination was made retrospectively using the relevant parameters collected at baseline in the original study. Two hundred and twenty-four (70.1 % male) participants were included. The prevalence of PEM was 28.6 % on GLIM and 17 % via the PG-SGA. Compared with the PG-SGA, the GLIM achieved sensitivity of 73.7 % and specificity of 80.6 %; however positive predictive value was 43.7 % indicating that the GLIM over-diagnosed malnutrition compared with the PG-SGA. Kappa reached 0.427 indicating moderate diagnostic consistency. Due to the absence of an ideal instrument and the complexity of malnutrition often seen in this group which extends beyond PEM to significant micronutrient deficiencies, further work is required to determine the most appropriate instrument in this patient group, and how micronutrient status can also be included in the overall assessment given the critical role of micronutrients in this group.