[Malnutrition of home care patients]

To find the nutritional status of people >65 years old included in a Home Care programme, using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), to describe the parameters discovered and to identify their relationship with risk factors.

Descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Primary care centre.

104 patients, who were over 65 and at the time of the study within the centre's home care programme, were included.

The assessment was conducted by nursing staff in patients' homes.

To assess the scores on the MNA, to describe the social and demographic variables of patients and carers, and to determine the medical, social and pathological factors of risk of malnutrition.

Patients' mean age was 84.04 (SD, 8.76). 72.1% of carers were close relatives, with an average age of 61.88 (SD, 13.53). 20.2% of patients suffered from malnutrition and 51.9% were at risk of malnutrition. In both groups there was a low level of autonomy, significantly below that of well-nourished patients. No significant differences were found for the presence of more chronic illnesses, or social or psychological risk factors between these 2 groups and well-nourished patients.

There is an extensive risk of malnutrition and actual malnutrition in the home care population.