Correlation between nutritional status and unplanned readmission in elderly patients with chronic heart failure / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate nutritional status in elderly patients with chronic heart failure and to investigate its association with unplanned readmission.Methods:From July 2020 to August 2021, 220 elderly patients hospitalized for chronic heart failure in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Basic information, laboratory tests and other data of the patients were collected. Nutritional status of the patients was assessed by geriatric nutritional risk index and the patients were divided into groups. Data were analyzed by R4.1.1 and SPSS26.0, survival curves were drawn by Kaplan-Meier method, and the relationship between nutritional status and unplanned readmission in elderly patients with chronic heart failure was analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox regression.Results:Among 220 elderly patients with chronic heart failure, 59.5%(131/220) were in normal nutrition. There were 40.5%(89/220) in the malnutrition, including 26.8%(59/220) in the mild malnutrition and 13.6%(30/220) in the moderate and severe malnutrition. During the follow-up period of 3 months, 25.9% (57/220) had unplanned readmission. Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the incidence of unplanned readmissions was higher in the moderate and severe malnutrition than in the normal and mild malnutrition, and the difference among them was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that moderate and severe malnutrition was an independent predictor of unplanned readmission in elderly patients with chronic heart failure ( HR=2.064, 95% CI 1.029-4.138, P<0.05). Conclusions:The prevalence of malnutrition in elderly patients with chronic heart failure is high. Moderate and severe malnutrition is an independent predictor of unplanned readmission in elderly patients with chronic heart failure. The geriatric nutritional risk index is an effective screening tool and can provide a reference for clinical evaluation of nutritional risk in patients.