[Nutritional status and associated factors in ambulatory elderly patients]

To analyze the nutritional status (NS) of patients older than 65 years and establish their relationship with sociodemographic and health variables.

Cross-sectional observational study in patients older than 65 years.

3 health centers.

255 patients: ambulatory (AP), in domiciliary care (DP) or institutionalized (IP). They completed the study 243 (response rate 95.3%).

The Chang method was applied to determine the NS. Sociodemographic, anthropometric variables, dependence, mood, cognitive and analytical parameters were collected. Associations were analyzed applying chi-square and analysis of variance. The prevalence ratio (PR) for malnutrition was calculated. A multivariate model was applied (binary logistic regression). Significance was considered for p<0.05.

The average age was 81.3 years (SD=7.4) and 72.0% were women. 48.9% were AP, 26.8% DP and 24.2% IP. 29.6% (95% CI: 23.9-35.8) presented malnutrition. Greater malnutrition was established in relation to living in a residence or requiring home help (PR=5.3), age over 85 (PR=4.9), presenting a moderate or higher dependency for basic activities of daily living (PR=3.9) and instrumental (PR=3.3), need help for mobility (PR=2.9) and present moderate/severe cognitive impairment (PR=2.1). The determinants of malnutrition in the multivariate model were older than 85 years old and being IP or DP.

Emphasis should be placed on evaluating NS in patients older than 85 years of age who live in a residence or require home care, since they are the groups at greatest risk of malnutrition.