Age-Related Vulnerability to Malnutrition-Related Mortality: Younger Patients are at Risk

Malnutrition among older adults continues to be a prevalent health concern. While literature has highlighted an increased risk of malnutrition mortality for adults older than 65 y, the age threshold at which malnutrition effects survival and mortality remains unexplored.

Annual crude and age-adjusted malnutrition-related mortality data from 2009 to 2018 was extracted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database. We compared crude rates by year, 10-y age groups (15 to 85+ y), and disposition among age groups 65+ y using analysis of variance. We examined crude rates, year, and 10-y age groups (15 to 85+ y) using multiple linear regression. A Welch two sample t-test was used to compare the 10-y age groups 55-64 and 65-74 by crude rate.

From 2009 to 2018, there were 275,282 older adult malnutrition-related mortalities. The differences in crude rates by year from 2009 to 2018 (P < 0.001) and all 10-y age groups were significant (P = 0.028). Differences in crude rates by disposition among age groups 65+ were not significant (P = 0.062). A multiple linear regression between crude rates between years 2009 and 2018 by all 10-y age groups showed a significant association (β = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.09, P < 0.001). The difference between the annual crude rate for 10-y age groups 55-64 y and 65-74 y was significant (95% CI = 7.49, 13.41, P value <0.001).

Increasing age correlates with higher rates of malnutrition mortality. While nourishment should be a priority for all patients, preventing malnutrition must be a priority for all care with the goal of survival and future research.