The Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) is a self-assessment nutritional screening tool. It could be used to screen the risk of malnutrition and weight loss. A study was conducted to determine the usefulness of SNAQ in appetite assessment in patients with liver cirrhosis.

The study enrolled 70 patients. Appetite assessment was done in the enrolled patients by completing SNAQ. Weight, hemoglobin, albumin, pro-albumin and Child-Pugh class were evaluated. Investigators assessed the correlation between SNAQ score and these indexes. The most discriminating SNAQ value was calculated, which identified the patient at risk of weight loss.

In patients with SNAQ < 14, BMI, hemoglobin, albumin and pro-albumin were significantly less in comparison with participants with SNAQ ≥ 14. There was a correlation between SNAQ and these indexes. The SNAQ scores were found to reduce with increase of Child-Pugh class. An SNAQ score below 11.5 was the best clinical indicator of elder people at risk of weight loss.

Investigators thus concluded that SNAQ could be a useful tool to evaluate appetite loss and predict weight loss in patients with liver cirrhosis. The tool can be used to identify patients with a poor appetite at risk of weight loss.

Source: Wang T, Shen J. Usefulness of Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) in Appetite Assessment in Elder Patients with Liver Cirrhosis. The Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging 2018;22:911-5.