Biochemical parameters in correlation with nutritional status of hospitalized elderly / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

Introduction: While the prevalence of malnutrition in the free living elderly population is relatively low, the risk of malnutrition increases dramatically in the hospitalized elderly. Patients who are malnourished when admitted to the hospital tend to have longer hospital stays, experience more complications, and have greater risk of morbidity and mortality than those whose nutritional state is normal. Goal To assess the nutritional status among hospitalized elderly in Secondary healthcare systems by the MNA screening tool. Materials and Methods: To the study were enrolled 411 hospitalized elderly patients in secondary healthcare systems. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the HSUM, and written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. We assessed the participants’ nutritional status by the MNA (Mini nutritional assessment) tool and divided into three groups malnourished, risk of malnutrition and normal nutritional status. We compared the relationship between nutritional status and some biochemical indicates such as total protein, albumin, cholesterol and blood glucose levels. The ANOVA and Pearson correlation tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: 146 (36.01%) elders were well nourished among our study participants. Serum albumin was significantly low in malnourished elders. Conclusion: Among the assessed elderly 36.01% had adequate nutritional status; 43.79% were at a risk of malnutrition and 20.19% were malnourished. Serum albumin was significantly low in malnourished elders.