A Swedish version of the SCREEN II for malnutrition assessment among community-dwelling elderly

BACKGROUND: The Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition II (SCREEN II) Questionnaire assesses nutritional risk among elderly people living at home. Our aim was to produce a Swedish language version of the SCREEN II and to examine response patterns, data completeness and the relationship between malnutrition and general health.

METHODS: The SCREEN II was translated into Swedish using dual panel methodology, and then followed up with field test interviews of 24 seniors (median age, 83 years). We used the survey data (n = 565) to assess item and score distribution, missing responses, and the relationship to the subject's general and nutritional health.

RESULTS: The Swedish SCREEN II was considered easy to understand, respond to, and relevant (n = 21; 88% of subjects found it so in all three respects) and its median completion time was 5 minutes. The level of survey item data completeness was 94-99%, and 82% of surveys had computable total scores. Of those subjects with completed forms, 35% had no nutritional risk; 35% had moderate risk; and 30% were at high risk. The malnutrition risk increased with poorer perceived health.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study results are similar to those using previous SCREEN II versions, indicating that the scale adaptation was successful and providing initial support for use of the Swedish SCREEN II questionnaire.