Hospitalized patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with respiratory failure are susceptible to nutritional risks due to the increasing energy expenditure [1], and nutritional risks are associated with higher incidence of complications, more treatment failures and poorer prognosis [1,2]. Nutritional risk screening 2002 (NRS 2002) by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) is the only evidence-based tool widely used to assess the nutritional status [3], and its Chinese version has been evaluated in Chinese hospitalized patients with good reliability and validity [4].
