Undernutrition and associated factors in a Portuguese older adult community

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Ana Luísa Moreira dos
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Amaral,Teresa Maria de Serpa Pinto Freitas do, Borges,Nuno Pedro Garcia Fernandes Bento
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Nutrição
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-52732015000300231
• topic: Aged; Malnutrition; Nutritional assessment

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of undernutrition in older adults aged >75 years living in communities and to identify the main factors independently associated with undernutrition. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a random sample of family physicians' medical records of 86 older adults aged >75 years living in the community studied. Their nutritional status was evaluated using the Mini Nutritional Assessment. RESULTS: A total of 10.5% of the elderly were undernourished and 41.9% were at undernutrition risk. According to the logistic regression multivariable model, the following characteristics: being widowed (OR=6.7; 95%CI=1.8-24.6); being institutionalized (OR=12.6; 95%CI=1.7-90.5); or having a negative self-perception of health (OR=15.0; 95%CI=3.3-69.1) were independently associated with a significant increase of undernutrition risk. CONCLUSION: The current study shows that undernutrition is highly prevalent in Portuguese older adults aged >75 years living in communities. The major factors independently associated with their undernutrition are being widowed and institutionalized and having negative self-perception of health. The results obtained show that undernutrition and its associated factors are very serious problems for older adults and a challenge in their health care.