Malnutrition risk of hospitalized elderly and their anthropometric indicators / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

Introduction: With advancing age, the risk of developing nutritional deficiencies increases. Malnutrition can lead to functional dependency, increases morbidity, mortality, and greater use of health care resources. Goal The goal of our study was to assess the nutritional risk among recently hospitalized elderly in Secondary healthcare systems by the NSI screening tool and assess indicators of anthropometry assessment in nutritionally different groups. 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. The nutritional status was classified by the NSI (Nutrition Screening Initiative) into high risk of malnutrition, moderate risk of malnutrition and without malnutrition (adequate). Results: Among the assessed elderly, 8.03% had adequate nutritional status; 32.85% were at a risk of malnutrition and 59.12% were at a moderate risk of malnutrition. Some anthropometric variables such as weight, abdominal circumference, calf and mid-arm circumference assessed were significantly more deteriorated among the malnourished individuals. Among the NSI variables tooth loss/ mouth pain (21.6%), eating few fruits or vegetables or milk products (14.3%), chronic illness (13.8%), multiple medicines (13.4%) or economic hardship (11.3%) were found as the risk of malnourished elderly. Conclusion: There is an interrelationship between the nutritional status of the elderly and some anthropometric variables.