10.25419/rcsi.10818158.v1 Aoife Ward Aoife Ward An Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Men and Women with, or at risk of, a Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU). Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland 2019 Nutritional Status Malnutrition Nutrition Diabetic Foot Ulcer DFU Foot Ulcer Diabetes Nutrition Screening 2019-11-22 18:31:09 Thesis https://repository.rcsi.com/articles/thesis/An_Assessment_of_the_Nutritional_Status_of_Men_and_Women_with_or_at_risk_of_a_Diabetic_Foot_Ulcer_DFU_/10818158 <p><strong>An Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Men and Women with, or at risk of, a Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU).</strong></p> <p><strong>Aim: </strong>The study aimed to establish the nutritional status of adults with, or at risk of, a DFU, of any grade, and to determine if there were differences in nutritional status between men and women.</p> <p><strong>Method: </strong>A quantitative, non-experimental observational study design was employed. Participants were recruited from a vascular foot protection clinic through convenience sampling; ethical approval was sought and obtained. The following assessments were completed; Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) and Mini-Nutritional Assessment short and long form (MNA-SF and MNA-LF).</p> <p><strong>Results / Discussion: </strong>Fifteen participants were recruited, 10 with DFU Wagner grade 1-3 and five without DFU. Using SGA, the majority of participants were assessed as mild/moderately malnourished (66.7%; n=10), and the remaining (33.3%; n=5) were well-nourished. Further analysis showed that 80% (n=4) of those assessed as being well-nourished did not have a DFU, while of those mild/moderately malnourished, 90% (n=9) had a DFU present. There was a lack of congruence between the other assessment tools. For example, of those assessed as being mild/moderately malnourished, 50% (n=5) had a pre-obese BMI. Of those without a DFU, 100% (n=5) had received recent dietetic input. Of those with a current DFU, 100% (n=10) had not had recent dietetic input.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong>: The results of this research suggest that current malnutrition assessment tools may not all be suitable for the identification of malnutrition in DFU patients. Further, the role of the dietitian in the management of a patient with DFU may be underestimated.</p>