DEVELOPMENT, VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE DERBY NUTRITIONAL SCORE

Background: The Derby Nutritional Score (DNS) is a new instrument whic h has been developed to screen the nutritional status of all adult pat ients on admission to hospital. In this article we describe the ration ale for its development and report the findings of two related studies in which the validity and inter-rater reliability of the instrument w ere evaluated. Methods: Eighty-nine patients were screened by nursing staff on admission using the DNS and were assessed within 8 h by an ex perienced senior dietitian using a Dietetic Assessment Scale (DAS). In the reliability study, 70 patients were screened by five experienced nurses within 8 h of admission. Results: Moderately good agreement (ka ppa=0.6) was reached between scores obtained using the DNS and ratings obtained by the DAS. Similarly, agreement between pairs of nurses wit h respect to classification of nutritional risk was found to be high ( median kappa=0.7). Conclusion: The DNS appears to be a valid and relia ble instrument which can be administered accurately and relatively qui ckly by trained nursing staff to identify patients at risk of malnutri tion.