Nutritional status and clinical evolution of the elderly in home enteral nutritional therapy: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the clinical and nutritional evolution of elderly patients receiving home enteral nutritional therapy. METHOD: retrospective cohort observational study. Data collection was performed through the analysis of clinical and nutritional records. The demographic, nutritional and clinical variables were analyzed. The sample consisted of elderly patients using home enteral nutritional therapy via the probe or the stomach. For the statistical analysis, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program was used, adopting the level of significance of 5%. RESULTS: the sample was 218 participants, with a mean age of 76 ± 10.12 years, of which 54.1% were female. The main morbidity was the stroke sequelae. Malnutrition was the nutritional diagnosis and the overall subjective assessment, the main instrument of nutritional evaluation. The route of administration of the most prevalent diet was the nasoenteric/nasogastric tube, however, after one year of follow-up, gastrostomy became the main route. It was observed the predominance of general condition maintenance and the most prevalent clinical outcome was death. CONCLUSION: the majority of patients in home enteral nutrition therapy presented maintenance and / or improvement of clinical and nutritional status. Therefore, this therapy may contribute to a better clinical and nutritional evolution.