Factors associated with nutritional status in hospitalized elderly patients

Abstract

Introduction: malnutrition is a prevalent condition in people older than 65 years. Poor nutritional status has been associated to longer hospital stays, complications, increased comorbidities and mortality. This study aims to describe the relationship between the nutritional status of hospitalized older adults and factors such as support network, functionality and the presence of dementia. Materials and methods: a descriptive cross-sectional analytical study was carried out based on the revision of medical records of patients hospitalized by the Geriatrics Unit at San Ignacio University Hospital in Bogota, Colombia. Nutritional status measured through the Mini-Nutritional Assessment was considered to be the dependent variable. Sociodemographic factors, functional status, previous diagnosis of dementia, support network, delirium, length of hospital stay and presence of comorbidities were used as independent variables. Results: 887 patients with an average age of 85.43 were included. 43.07% were men. The logistic regression model revealed that the presence of delirium OR 2.27 (CI 1.48-3.48), the diagnosis of dementia OR 2.48 (CI 1.63-3.77) and the longer hospital stay OR 1.05 (CI 1.0-1.10) had an association of increased risk with malnutrition Conclusion: a significant association was found between poor nutritional status with decreased functionality, longer hospital stays, having a diagnosis of dementia, presenting delirium, having a greater number of comorbidity and higher mortality. Future studies addressing this issue are required. (Acta Med Colomb 2018; 43: 69-73).