Objective: We aimed to investigate reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ) in geriatric outpatients.

Design/setting: A cross-sectional study was designed through 2013-2016 years. At first, translation and back translation processes of the SNAQ from English to Turkish languages were done consecutively. Then construct validity was performed.

Participants: They were recruited among the outpatients aged >=60 years that were consecutively admitted to the geriatric outpatient clinic of the Istanbul University hospital.

Measurements: Demographic data was recorded. SNAQ, Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), six-item Katz activities of daily living (ADL) and eight-item Lawton instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales were applied.

Results: 442 participants consisted of 305 women and 137 men with a mean age of 77.1 ± 6.8 years. The SNAQ identified 21.5% (n=95) of the participants with poor appetite. Reliability analysis showed good inter-rater reliability (r= 0.693, p< 0.05) and test-retest stability (r= 0.654, p< 0.05). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.522. In terms of construct validity of SNAQ, Cohen's kappa analysis showed fair to moderate agreement between SNAQ and MNA (κ=0,355, p<0.001). Female gender, being illiterate, functional dependency in IADL were significantly associated with poor appetite. The SNAQ score was weakly correlated with scores of MNA-SF and MNA-LF (r=0.392 and r=0.380, respectively, p<0.0001 for both). There was statistically significantbut negligible correlation between the SNAQ and Katz ADL index, Lawton IADL index, and age.

Conclusion: Turkish version of the SNAQ is a simple measurement with sufficient reliability and validity to screen poor appetite in community-dwelling older adults.