ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the risk of falling and nutritional status in elderly surgical patients,and to assess the correlation between them.Methods Patients aged ≥65 in Department of General Surgery of Beijing Hospital between January and June 2015 were enrolled in this study.The Morse Fall Scale was used to evaluate the risk of falling.Anthropometrics,body composition,and Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) scores were collected to evaluate the nutritional status of the patients.The correlation between risk of falling and nutritional status was analyzed.Results A total of 383 patients were included,including 314 cases under 80 (65-79 years) and 69 cases ≥ 80.Patients ≥ 80 years showed significantly lower grip [(24.53 ± 8.09)kgvs.(30.57 ±8.48)kg,P＜0.05] and4-meter gait speed [(0.66 ±0.19)m/s vs.(0.84 ± 0.20) m/s,P ＜ 0.05],but significantly increased undemutrition [15.9％ (11/69) vs.7.0％ (22/314),P ＜ 0.05] and nutritional risk [56.5％ (39/69) vs.38.2％ (120/314),P ＜0.05].Altogether 33.9％ of the patients (130/383) were at high risk of falling,and the prevalence was significantly higher in patients ≥80 than in patients ＜ 80 [44.9％ (31/69) vs.31.5％ (99/314),P =0.036].Compared with patients not at high risk of falling,high-risk patients had lower body mass index [(22.33 ± 1.82) kg/m2 vs.(23.76 ± 3.26) kg/m2] and grip [(24.95 ± 8.56) kg vs.(30.72 ± 8.39) kg],but higher prevalence of nutritional risk [46.9％ (61/130) vs.38.7％ (98/253)] (all P＜0.05).Conclusions Eldedy surgical patients have a high risk of falling,which may be related with their nutritional status.Nursing and nutrition intervention should be emphasized in there patients to prevent falling and improve clinical outcome.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the nutritional status of elderly inpatients with benign orthopedic diseases and to assess its relationship with clinical outcomes.Methods Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 ( NRS 2002) was used to prospectively investigate undernutrition and nutritional risk in elderly patients hospitalized between April 1 and May 31, 2012 in Beijing Hospital for benign orthopedic diseases.Associations between nu-tritional status and clinical outcomes were analyzed.Results A total of 520 patients were included, with a mean age of (75 ±7.09) years.The mean body mass index (BMI) was (23.20 ±3.83) kg/m2, mean dominant-hand grip strength was (16.87 ±19.19) kg, mean mid-upper arm circumference was (25.62 ±3.81) cm, mean calf circumference was (31.92 ±4.02) cm.Compared with patients aged 65-79 years, patients≥80 years showed significantly lower hand grip strength [ (13.58 ±15.92) kg vs.(18.48 ±20.42) kg, P=0.004].All the pa-tients completed NRS 2002, which showed that 9.31%of the patients had undernutrition (BMI≤18.5 kg/m2), and 45.19%had nutritional risk (NRS 2002 score≥3).Compared with patients aged 65-79 years, patients≥80 years had significantly higher incidence of undernutrition (13.97% vs.7.21%, P=0.024) and nutritional risk (52.38%vs.41.76%, P=0.024), higher incidence of infectious complications in patients with nutritional risk (10.21%vs.5.26%, P=0.044), longer hospital stay [ (11.66 ±5.76) days vs.(10.42 ±4.37) days, P=0.016], and higher hospital expense [(20.28 ±1.811) thousand yuan vs.(16.39 ±1.362) thousand yuan, P=0.016].Conclusion Elderly patients hospitalized for benign orthopedic diseases have a high incidence of undernutrition and nutritional risk, which is associated with worse clinical outcomes.