Estado nutricional y factores asociados en pacientes ancianos ambulatorios

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the nutritional status (NS) of patients older than 65 years and establish their relationship with sociodemographic and health variables. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study in patients older than 65 years. LOCATION: 3 health centers. PARTICIPANTS: 255 patients: ambulatory (AP), in domiciliary care (DP) or institutionalized (IP). They completed the study 243 (response rate 95.3%). MAIN MEASUREMENTS: The Chang method was applied to determine the NS. Sociodemographic, anthropometric variables, dependence, mood, cognitive and analytical parameters were collected. Associations were analyzed applying chi-square and analysis of variance. The prevalence ratio (PR) for malnutrition was calculated. A multivariate model was applied (binary logistic regression). Significance was considered for p<0.05. RESULTS: The average age was 81.3 years (SD = 7.4) and 72.0% were women. 48.9% were AP, 26.8% DP and 24.2% IP. 29.6% (95% CI: 23.9-35.8) presented malnutrition. Greater malnutrition was established in relation to living in a residence or requiring home help (PR = 5.3), age over 85 (PR = 4.9), presenting a moderate or higher dependency for basic activities of daily living (PR = 3.9) and instrumental (PR = 3.3), need help for mobility (PR = 2.9) and present moderate/severe cognitive impairment (PR = 2.1). The determinants of malnutrition in the multivariate model were older than 85 years old and being IP or DP. CONCLUSIONS: Emphasis should be placed on evaluating NS in patients older than 85 years of age who live in a residence or require home care, since they are the groups at greatest risk of malnutrition.