Nutritional assessment, quality of life and related diseases of elderly nursing home residents

• Autor(a) principal: Iwamoto,Cristiane
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Silva,Rosane Borges da, Santos,Luana Caroline dos, Coutinho,Vanessa Fernandes
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/335
• topic: Aged people, mini nutritional assessment, quality of life, WHOQOL-OLD, diseases.

<p><b>OBJECTIVE:</b> To evaluate the nutritional status and quality of life of elderly nursing home residents in Florian&oacute;polis, State of Santa Catarina, and to investigate their diseases.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> A cross-sectional study was performed in three institutions. Nutritional status was evaluated using the Mini Nutritional Assessment questionnaire and quality of life using WHOQOL-OLD. Diseases were identified from medical records. Individuals presenting incapacitating mental disease, uncommunicativeness or inability to walk or remain standing for anthropometric evaluations were excluded. The data were analyzed descriptively and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, One-way ANOVA and the chi-square or Fisher test were applied, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software, version 12.0.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> Twenty-eight elderly people (33%) aged 63 to 93 years (77±9 years) took part; 93% were women. Normal nutritional status predominated (85,7%), without statistically significant difference between age groups (p=0,558) or sexes (p=0,174). The "Autonomy" facet of quality of life presented the worst score, without significant difference between age groups (p=0,170). The "Death and dying" facet had the best score, with a significant difference between age groups (p=0,008). 50% of the sample presented three to four different diseases, and chronic-degenerative diseases prevailed, particularly systemic arterial hypertension (70%) and heart disease (39%). There was no significant difference between disease presence and age groups (p=0,166).<br> <b>CONCLUSIONS:</b> It was observed that women and multiple diseases predominated and that 14.3% of the sample presented nutritional deficits. A low quality-of-life score was only seen in the facet "autonomy". The need for further studies on institutionalized elderly people, using these assessment instruments to better characterize this group, is highlighted.</p>