Nutritional assessment and its application.

Nutritional assessment is essential for identifying patients who are at risk for developing malnutrition or who have existing nutritional disease. It also is essential for monitoring progress on nutritional therapy. As cost containment plays a major role in health care today, emphasis is placed on the ability of healthcare workers in all care settings to recognize and avert potentially costly nutrition-related problems. This article reviews clinical assessment and laboratory parameters, with particular emphasis on the subjective data used in nutritional assessment.