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Abstract Background Hospitalized individuals present high rates of malnutrition and loss of muscle mass (MM). Imaging techniques for assessing MM are expensive and scarcely available in hospital practice. The Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) proposed a framework for malnutrition diagnosis that includes simple measurements to assess MM, such as calf circumference (CC) and mid‐upper arm circumference (MUAC). This study aimed to analyze the validity of the GLIM criteria with CC and MUAC for malnutrition diagnosis, using Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) as the reference standard, in inpatients. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted on 453 inpatient adults in a university hospital. The presence of malnutrition was assessed within 48 h of hospital admission using SGA and GLIM criteria using CC and MUAC as phenotypic criteria for malnutrition diagnosis. Accuracy, agreement tests, and logistic regression analysis adjusted for confounders were performed to test the validity of the GLIM criteria for malnutrition diagnosis. Results The patients were aged 59 (46–68) years, 51.4% were male, and 67.8% had elective surgery. Compared with SGA, the GLIM criteria using the two MM assessment measures showed good accuracy (area under the curve > 0.80) and substantial agreement ( κ > 0.60) for diagnosing malnutrition. The highest sensitivity was obtained with GLIM CC (89%), whereas GLIM MUAC showed high specificity (>90%). Also, malnutrition identified by GLIM CC and GLIM MUAC was significantly associated with prolonged hospitalization and in‐hospital death. Conclusion In the absence of imaging techniques to assess MM, the use of CC and MUAC measurements from the GLIM criteria demonstrated satisfactory validity for diagnosing malnutrition in hospitalized patients.
Maffini et al. (Wed,) studied this question.