CNST PROM pathway

This is a two-stage pathway that streamlines the delivery, reminders, scoring, analysis, and data export of the Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool (CNST) for clinicians and researchers.

This pathway is designed to enable clinicians and researchers to

• deliver the CNST PROM to their patients quickly and easily,
• provide patients with contextual information about the CNST PROM,
• automatically remind patients to submit the CNST PROM,
• collect the results of the submitted CNST PROM,
• calculate the CNST PROM Score based on the answers submitted,
• allocate CNST PROM Cut Points based on the score calculations,
• display survey results, Score and Cut Points, and
• provide an export of deidentified CNST PROM data for research purposes.

Adults admitted to medical and surgical hospital wards, excluding palliative care, obstetric, psychiatry, or day units

Typically the pathway is given to patients for diagnostic or baselining purposes, as part of the ongoing provision of care or to help measure treatment outcomes.

The Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool (CNST) is a simple, two-question screening tool designed to identify patients at risk of malnutrition by assessing recent weight loss and reduced food intake.

Screening tool.

• Quick and easy to administer (two questions).
• Does not require a nutrition professional.
• Validated in acute care settings.
• High sensitivity (91.7%) and specificity (74.8%)

• May not be suitable for specific populations like acute stroke patients.
• Relies on self-reported data, which could introduce bias.
• Limited specificity in some settings when used by untrained personnel

Validated in hospital settings; predicts adverse outcomes such as prolonged length of stay, 30-day readmissions, and mortality.

High inter-rater reliability with a kappa coefficient of 0.88, indicating almost perfect agreement between raters.

Hospitalized adults in Canada, primarily those admitted to medical and surgical wards.

Two “Yes” answers (one for weight loss and one for reduced food intake) indicate nutritional risk and prompt further assessment.

Two “Yes” responses are the threshold for identifying patients at nutritional risk.

• Advances in Skin & Wound Care: The Journal for Prevention and Healing
  February 2017, Volume :30 Number 2
• Laporte, M. (2015). THE CANADIAN NUTRITION SCREENING TOOL: Validity and Reliability.
• Laporte M, Keller HH, Payette H, et al. Validity and reliability of the new Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool in the ‘real-world’ hospital setting. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2015;69(5):558-564. doi:10.1038/ejcn.2014.270