[Nutritional status assessment in 57 hospitalized aged patients: impact of the causal disease]

To study the nutritional status in elderly patients hospitalized for rehabilitation and to compare it among patients with hip fracture and those with medical care.

Patients were nutritionally assessed upon admission (d0) to our unit by measurement of anthropometric, biological parameters and dietary intake. Thirty-seven patients were operated for hip fracture (group I) and 21 were hospitalised for medical disease (group II). Nutritional status was compared in the two groups on d0 and was evaluated after one month (d30) in the operated group.

No significant difference could be observed for any anthropometric or biologic (albumin, transthyretin and transferrin) in the two groups. Daily food intake related to body weight was much the same in both groups (31 kcal/kg). C-reactive protein and orosomucoid levels were above the reference range in both groups. Hip fracture operated patients had higher orosomucoid than non-operated ones (1.50 +/- 0.4 versus 1.14 +/- 0.4 g/L; P = 0.002). One-month follow-up of nutritional status performed in 31 operated patients showed a significant decrease in TST and MAC (respectively p = 0.02 and p = 0.007) and in orosomucoid (p = 0.003) although daily food intake increased.

Twenty-eight percent of patients were undernourished upon admission in the unit. A moderate inflammatory state still remained in all our patients, particularly in those who had undergone surgery. This inflammatory state persisted two months after surgery.