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Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
[Loss of appetite in elderly people in the community and its relationship with functional capacity]
Mateu Serra Prat1, Xavier Fernández, Laura Ribó
1Unidad de Investigación, Consorci Sanitari del Maresme, Mataró, CIBER Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas, Barcelona, España. mserra@csdm.cat
Background And Objective:
The reasons of anorexia of ageing are multiple and not well-known. One of them is loss of appetite. We aimed to know the prevalence of self-reported appetite-loss in the elderly and its relationship with nutritional status, muscle strength and functional capacity.
Subjects And Method:
A population based cross-sectional study in which 236 non-institutionalized subjects over 70 years were randomly selected. Hand grip, functional capacity and nutritional status were assessed and a specific questionnaire was administered to assess appetite. Anorexia or loss of appetite was considered when subjects declared none or low usual appetite both in breakfast and lunch time.
Results:
A 30.0% global prevalence of anorexia was observed (37.1% in females and 17.9% in males; p = 0.001). Loss of appetite was related to higher risk of malnutrition (41% in anorexic vs 27% in non-anorexic; p = 0.039), lower muscular strength and poorer functional capacity.
Conclusions:
Loss of appetite in the elderly has a high prevalence and must alert about frailty.
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