Objective  To observe the adaptability of Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool(MUST) for risk of malnutrition of alcohol-dependent hospitalized patients, and verify its predictive efficacy.

  Methods  Alcohol-dependent newly admitted patients in Clinical Psychology Ward were selected by convenience sampling method. MUST was used for admission assessment, and patients were divided into control group (low risk of malnutrition) and observation group (medium or high nutritional risk) according to whether the MUST score was below 1 or not. The general information of the patients in the two groups, blood indicators of the first test and clinical manifestations within 72 hours of admission were collected, and their differences were analyzed.

  Results  In the 28 patients with alcohol dependence, there were 19 patients (67.86%) with MUST score ≥1. The differences showed no statistically significant between the two groups in age, education background, nationality, drinking history, smoking history, gastrointestinal dysfunction, blood potassium concentration in the first test(P>0.05). The indexes of liver function, the abnormal rate of serum total protein and incidence of withdrawal symptoms within 72 h after admission in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group(P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  Alcohol-dependent newly admitted patients have high risk of malnutrition. MUST has a good accuracy in prediction of liver function, total blood protein and withdrawal symptoms within 72 hours. As an assessment tool for newly admitted patients, MUST plays a role in early warning.