Comprehensive Assessment of Malnutrition Risk and Related Factors in a Large Group of Community-dwelling Older Adults

Background & Aims: Older adults are poorly assessed for malnutrition risk although malnutrition is not an uncommon problem in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the malnutrition risk and its correlates in geriatric outpatients.

Method: The study was performed in 2327 patients > or =65 years old who were admitted to our Geriatric Medicine outpatient clinic. Together with comprehensive geriatric assessment, nutritional assessment with short version of mini nutritional assessment test (MNA-SF) was performed. MNA-SF score < or =11 was determined as malnutrition risk.

Results: Mean age of patients was 72.14+/-6.11 and 1479 (63.6%) were female. Mean MNA-SF score was 12.31+/-2.18. The number of patients with MNA-SF score < or =11 was 651 (28%). Depression, haematocrit, plasma fasting glucose, albumin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, instrumental activities of daily living scores and bone mineral density measured from total femur were found to be significantly associated with malnutrition risk.

Conclusion: In this study malnutrition risk was detected in 651 (28%) patients. This ratio was similar to the literature. In older adults malnutrition risk is found to be increased due to majority of chronic illnesses and physical dependency. In conclusion, nutritional assessment should be a part of comprehensive geriatric assessment.