Analysis of risk factors associated to malnutrition in elderly inpatients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the risk factors associated to malnutrition in elderly inpatients for supplying clinical evidences for the prevention and therapy of malnutrition. Methods A one-to-one matched case-control study was used to investigate the risk factors associated to malnutrition in elderly inpatients over 60 years old. Results Eight-five pairs were included. Single factor analysis suggested that serum total protein. hemoglobin, serum total cholesterol, non auto -selective food, anorexia, dysphasia, confinement in the bed and infectious diseases might be associated with malnutrition in elderly inpaticnts (all P＜ 0.05 ). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that serum total protein, hemoglobin, anorexia, dysphasia and confinement in the bed were the major risk factors (P＜0.05). Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed the predicable results and practical results had better similarity (x2 =4. 957, P= 0. 762). Receiver operation characteristic curve ( ROC curve) also revealed the area under curve of serum total protein and hemoglobin were 0 760 and 0.621(P=0.000 and P=0.006 respectiuely), therefore, 56.8 g/L of serum total protein and 108 g/L of hemoglobin might be appropriate reference points for evaluating the malnutrition. Conclusions Serum total protein, hemoglobin, anorexia, dysphasia and confinement in the bed may play crucial roles for malnutrition in elderly inpatients, the status of malnutrition will be improved if the reversible risk factors are amendable.