Nutritional assessment in hospitalized elderly patients, its sociodemographic determinants and co-relation with activities of daily life

INTRODUCTION: Present study was planned to identify various sociodemographic factors influencing nutritional status in elderly and impact of nutritional status on activities of daily living in them. METHODS: Total of 177 patients were enrolled in a prospective observational study. Nutritional status was assessed at the time of discharge by using Mini Nutritional Assessment form (MNA). Kartz Activity of Daily Living was assessed at 3 months before admission, at the time of admission, at discharge and 3 months after discharge. After written informed consent and ethics clearance patients were enrolled in the study. Analysis was done using the SPSS version 23 and Chi Square test was used to find the association between different qualitative variables. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Mean age of the study participants was 68.64 ± 7.73 years. 40 patients (22.6%) were found to be malnourished. Higher age, living alone, high CCI score and low ADL at discharge were associated with malnutrition. Mean ADL score was 5.82 at - 3 months time point in well-nourished patients which decreased during admission and then increased to 4.94 at the 3 months after discharge. Mean ADL score was of 5.33 at -3 months time point which kept on decreasing during admission and at 3 months after discharge in malnourished group. All these changes were statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Nutritional status is a modifiable risk factor in elderly so identifying and optimizing nutritional status of elderly will optimise their functional status and improve quality of life.