Assessing nutritional risk and its association with mortality in ICU patients using the modified NUTRIC score: evidence from a tertiary care hospital

Background The objective of this study was to assess nutritional risk in ICU patients using the modified Nutritional Risk in Critically ill (mNUTRIC) score and to evaluate its association with in-hospital mortality.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, including 584 ICU admitted patients. The mNUTRIC score was calculated, and the association between mNUTRIC-defined nutritional risk and mortality was evaluated using logistic regressions.Results Of the total 584 patients, the mean 57.6 ± 15.3 years and 67.5% (n = 394) were female. The mean APACHE-II and SOFA scores were 18.9 ± 8.5 and 5.1 ± 1.9, respectively. The mean mNUTRIC score was 3.2 ± 2.0 with 69.9% of patients classified as low nutritional risk and 30.1% as high nutritional risk. Patients classified as having high nutritional risk by the mNUTRIC score had a high mortality rate (62.9%). In adjusted mortality model, low nutritional risk based on the mNUTRIC score was associated with significantly lower odds of mortality (aOR 0.51, 95% CI 0.28–0.91) after adjustment for APACHE-II score, the number of comorbidities, and ICU type. The area under the curve for discriminating mortality was 0.819.Conclusion The mNUTRIC score is a useful nutritional risk screening tool and demonstrates a strong prognostic association with mortality in critically ill ICU patients, supporting its applicability in a tertiary care hospital context in Pakistan.