The purpose of this study was to develop a tool for nutritional assessment, so that home care nurses can make early assessment of patients' nutritional status.

The study was done in two partsfirst a tool was developed to assess nutrition, and second the content validity and clinical validity of the categories and indices were verified.

The results of this study are summarized in two ways. First,the nutritional assessment tool was classified into 3 areas, physical measurement, nutritional survey and clinical survey, and into 11 categories with 22 indices. Second, when 5 of the 11 categories were positive, nutritional status was considered to be poor.

By developing a clinically useful nutritional assessment tool for patients receiving home care, which was developed in this study, the quality of life for these patients will improve and contribution to the development of a more effective clinical home nursing practice will occur.