Nutritional status and clinical outcomes among institutionalized elderly Chinese in Taiwan

Nutrition is an important issue in institutional care, and is related to clinical outcomes in many aspects. Although Taiwan is marching to an aged society, related studies were lacking. Elderly residents in two long-term care facilities (LTCF) were enrolled for study. Nutritional status including anthropometric measurements and laboratory examinations was assessed every 3 months for 12 months. Age, sex-matched community-dwelling elderly participating in the annual health check-up was randomly selected as the control subjects. In total, 66 subjects in LTCF and 870 age, sex-matched community-dwelling elderly were enrolled. Body mass index, serum levels of albumin, and total cholesterol were significantly poorer in LTCF residents than the community-dwelling elderly. Triceps skinfold thickness, hemoglobin, serum albumin, and total cholesterol were progressively deteriorated among the institutionalized elderly during the 6-month follow-up. Thirteen subjects of the study group had been hospitalized during the follow-up. Body mass index, triceps skinfold thickness, mid-arm circumference, serum albumin at screening were significantly poorer and unintentional weight loss within 6 months was significantly greater in subjects who had been hospitalized. By using multivariate logistic regression model, only weight loss >5% within 6-month follow-up was the significant independent predictive factors to hospitalization. In conclusion, nutritional status of institutionalized elderly Chinese was significantly poorer than the community-dwelling elderly. Nutritional markers were progressively deteriorated in LTCF residents during the follow-up period. Unintentional weight loss >5% within 6 months was the only significantly independent predictive factor for hospitalization among the institutionalized elderly Chinese.