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Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form (PG-SGA SF) is a valid screening tool in chemotherapy outpatients

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Abstract

Purpose

In the oncology population where malnutrition prevalence is high, more descriptive screening tools can provide further information to assist triaging and capture acute change. The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form (PG-SGA SF) is a component of a nutritional assessment tool which could be used for descriptive nutrition screening. The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary analysis of nutrition screening and assessment data to identify the most relevant information contributing to the PG-SGA SF to identify malnutrition risk with high sensitivity and specificity.

Methods

This was an observational, cross-sectional study of 300 consecutive adult patients receiving ambulatory anti-cancer treatment at an Australian tertiary hospital. Anthropometric and patient descriptive data were collected. The scored PG-SGA generated a score for nutritional risk (PG-SGA SF) and a global rating for nutrition status. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were generated to determine optimal cut-off scores for combinations of the PG-SGA SF boxes with the greatest sensitivity and specificity for predicting malnutrition according to scored PG-SGA global rating.

Results

The additive scores of boxes 1–3 had the highest sensitivity (90.2 %) while maintaining satisfactory specificity (67.5 %) and demonstrating high diagnostic value (AUC = 0.85, 95 % CI = 0.81–0.89). The inclusion of box 4 (PG-SGA SF) did not add further value as a screening tool (AUC = 0.85, 95 % CI = 0.80–0.89; sensitivity 80.4 %; specificity 72.3 %).

Conclusions

The validity of the PG-SGA SF in chemotherapy outpatients was confirmed. The present study however demonstrated that the functional capacity question (box 4) does not improve the overall discriminatory value of the PG-SGA SF.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) Small Grant 2013 and the Queensland Health Practitioner Research Grant Scheme 2013–2014.

Author’s contribution

All authors read and approved the final manuscript. JA carried out the study and prepared the manuscript. JA and LT were responsible for the conception and study design, statistical analysis and interpretation. DM advised on Charm software. EI, LT, AM, and DM provided interpretation and critical revision of the article. JA and JW participated in the acquisition of data and literature review. EI supervised the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, QLD, 4215, Australia

    Jessica Abbott

  2. Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD, 4102, Australia

    Jessica Abbott, D. McKavanagh, J. Watson, A. L. McCarthy & E. Isenring

  3. Bond University, Robina, QLD, 4226, Australia

    L. Teleni & E. Isenring

  4. Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, 4059, Australia

    A. L. McCarthy

  5. University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4067, Australia

    E. Isenring

Authors
  1. Jessica Abbott
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  2. L. Teleni
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  3. D. McKavanagh
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  4. J. Watson
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  5. A. L. McCarthy
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  6. E. Isenring
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessica Abbott.

Ethics declarations

A written informed consent was obtained from all participants. The protocol (HREC/13/QPAH/110) received was approved by the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that we have no conflicts of interest. We acknowledge that we have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

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Abbott, J., Teleni, L., McKavanagh, D. et al. Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form (PG-SGA SF) is a valid screening tool in chemotherapy outpatients. Support Care Cancer 24, 3883–3887 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3196-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3196-0

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