The ABCDs of nutritional assessment in infectious diseases research

Lindsey M Locks; Aneri Parekh; Katharine Newell; Madolyn R Dauphinais; Chelsie Cintron; Kimberly Maloomian; Elaine A Yu; Julia L Finkelstein; Saurabh Mehta; Pranay Sinha

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiae540

The ABCDs of nutritional assessment in infectious diseases research

J Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 6:jiae540. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae540. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lindsey M Locks^{1

2}, Aneri Parekh³, Katharine Newell¹, Madolyn R Dauphinais⁴, Chelsie Cintron⁵, Kimberly Maloomian^{6

7}, Elaine A Yu^{8

9}, Julia L Finkelstein^{10

11

12

13}, Saurabh Mehta^{10

11

12

13}, Pranay Sinha^{4

14}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Sciences, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
² Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Boston Medical Center, 801 Massachusetts Ave, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA.
⁶ HMX, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Kimba's Kitchen, LLC, West Palm Beach, FL, USA.
⁸ Vitalant Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Precision Nutrition and Health, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹¹ St John's Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
¹² Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹³ Division of Epidemiology, Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁴ Section of Infectious Diseases, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 39504432
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiae540

Abstract

Malnutrition is the most common acquired cause of immunodeficiency worldwide. Nutritional deficiencies can blunt both the innate and adaptive immune response to pathogens. Furthermore, malnutrition is both a cause and consequence of infectious diseases. The bidirectional relationship between infectious diseases and undernutrition, as well as the inflammatory milieu of infectious diseases, can complicate nutritional assessment. This article aims to provide clinicians and researchers with an overview of commonly used tools to assess nutritional status, with a particular emphasis on their use in the context of infectious diseases. This includes anthropometric, biochemical, clinical/physical, and dietary assessments to screen and evaluate undernutrition, diet quality, and food insecurity effectively.

Keywords: Anthropometry; Diet Quality; Food Insecurity; Infectious Disease; Malnutrition; Nutritional Assessments.

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