NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH GRIP STRENGTH IN ELDERLY CANDIDATES FOR SURGERY

• Autor(a) principal: Araújo, Aline
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Silva, Laura, Burgos, Maria Goretti
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34635/rpc.857

Background: nutritional assessment in surgical elderly is important to identify individuals at risk for surgical complications and intervene in a timely manner. Objective: to assess nutritional status and factors associated with handgrip strength in pre- surgical elderly. Methods: cross-sectional study, with elderly candidates for elective surgery, in a tertiary hospital in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. Sociodemographic, clinical, nutritional and physical activity variables were collected. To assess nutritional risk, NRS-2002 was carried out; for nutritional diagnosis, body mass index, weight loss percentage, arm and calf circumference were collected, and handgrip strength was used to assess muscle strength. Results: 105 patients were studied, 52.4% women and 80% with benign diseases. The diagnosis of eutrophy, according to the body mass index, arm circumference and calf circumference was prevalent in 44.8%, 60% and 66.7% of the elderly, respectively. The handgrip strength was adequate in 82.9%, and lower values were associated with advanced age (p = 0.039), female sex (p <0.001), being single or widowed (p <0.001), physical inactivity (p = 0.001), nutritional risk (p = 0.038) and malnutrition due to calf circumference (p = 0.046). The preoperative fasting time was 11.96 ± 2.65 hours and in the postoperative period 4.73 ± 6.29 hours. The prevalent clinical outcome was hospital discharge (99%), with mortality occurring in one patient. The length of stay was 1-2 days in 76.2%. Conclusions: there was a low frequency of nutritional risk and malnutrition. Nutritional risk and malnutrition according to calf circumference were related to lower values of handgrip strength, in addition to advanced age, being single or widowed and sedentary, with a significant association between reduced muscle strength and these conditions. Malignant diseases and major surgeries were associated with an unfavorable clinical outcome, longer hospital stay and the presence of nutritional risk.