Nutricional Status of Elderly People Hospitalized in Chile

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to characterize the nutritional condition of elderly patients recently hospitalized in the internal medicine ward of a hospital in Chile, using different nutritional assessment tools. We hypothesized that there should be a high prevalence of undernutrition in this group of patients. METHODS: This is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, planned to include 300 patients who are older than 65 years and recently admitted (less than 72 hours) to the internal medicine ward at the “Hospital de Urgencia Asistencia Pública” in Chile. For those patients who agreed to participate in the study and did not meet the exclusion criteria (altered state of consciousness, and severe disease), we obtained demographic and clinical data such as weight, height, calf circumference, admission diagnostic, total length of hospitalization, and the results of applying 3 nutritional assessment tools: (i) Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), (ii) Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002), and (iii) Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA SF). RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-four patients (74,9 ± 7,4 years old, 47,6% women, and 52,4% men) have been included preliminarily in the study. Based on the Body Mass Index (BMI), 13,7% of patients were underweighted, 38,7% had normal weight, 29,8% were overweight and 17,8% presented obesity (P = 0,044). The three screening tools used (MST, NRS 2002, and MNA SF) had a good correlation with BMI, however, they were able to identify more patients at nutritional risk, than considering only BMI (MST 37,9%, NRS 2002 46,8%, and MNA 42,7%). Underweight patients had longer hospital stays when compared to normal weight, overweight, and obese patients. CONCLUSIONS: Considering only BMI, overweight and obesity conditions were more prevalent than underweight in elderly hospitalized patients in an internal medicine unit in Chile. We hypothesized this is a post-pandemic effect (long quarantines in our country), also related to the cultural and economic changes in our developing country. Although underweight was not prevalent, about 40% of elderly patients were at nutritional risk. The lower the BMI, the higher length of stay in hospital. FUNDING SOURCES: Annual Contest to Promote Research (CAI), from University Finis Terrae, Chile.