Validity and Reliability of Turkish Self-Mini Nutritional Assessment Scale

Introduction: The most common nutritional problem observed among the aged is malnutrition. The study was conducted as methodological research to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish Self Mini Nutritional Assessment Scale (Self-MNA) among Turkish elderly people. Methods: Data were collected from 131 aged individuals with the Sociodemographic Information Form, Mini Nutritional Assessment long-form (MNA), Mini Nutritional Assessment short-form (MNA-SF) and Self-MNA. In the study, test-retest, parallel form methods, lower 27%-upper 27% discrimination, ROC and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the scale. The scale was translated and then the final version was created by the views of three experts. A correlation analysis was conducted between MNA, MNA-SF and Self-MNA which are used as parallel forms.  Results: No statistically significant difference was found between test-retest scores of Self-MNA scores for reliability (p > 0.05). Positive relationships were found between Self-MNA and MNA and MNA-SF. Self-MNA scores of the upper 27% group were significantly higher than the Self-MNA scores of the lower 27% group. The appropriate cut-off value of Self MNA is determined as 12. Self-MNA scores below 12 points indicate that there may be a risk of malnutrition. The areas under the ROC curves (AUC = 0.718) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). At the cut-off value, the sensitivity is determined to be 75 and the specificity is 56.63.  Conclusion: Self-MNA is a valid and reliable tool for screening the malnutrition status of the aged in Turkey.