Abstract

MOURA, Raquel Bezerra Barbosa de; ARAUJO, Ângela Amorim de; BARBOSA, Janine Maciel  and  ARAUJO, Renan Gondim. Nutritional status and functionality in hospitalized elderly in a university hospital. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2020, n.21, pp.22-25. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2020.2105.

Introduction: The aging process leads to physiological changes that can affect health and nutrition in the elderly population, in addition to reducing their functional status. Objectives: Assess the nutritional and functional status of elderly patients hospitalized in a medical clinic of a teaching hospital. Methodology: Quantitative, cross section study with 55 hospitalized individuals aged ≥ 60 of both sexes. The research subjects were characterized regarding their socio-demographics, which were collected through a direct interview, using the Katz Index to evaluate functional status and the mini nutritional assessment and anthropometric measurements to evaluate nutritional status. The software Statistical Package for Social Sciences 13.0 was used for the statistical treatment, considering a p value < 0.05 significant for all tests. Results: Fifty-five elderly patients were evaluated with aged between 61 and 86 years, most of them men (52.7%). The mini nutritional assessment revealed that 56.4% and 21.8% of the sample was at risk of malnutrition or malnourished, respectively, while 34.5% was underweight according to the body mass index. As for the functional status, only 38.2% of the sample had independence in daily living activities. The association analysis between nutritional and functional status revealed that 88.2% of elderly patients with some degree of functional dependence were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Conclusions: The study shows a high percentage of elderly who are malnourished or at risk of developing malnutrition, in addition to showing some limitation in their functional status. There was an association between malnutrition and the reduction of the functional status of the elderly inpatients. As such, it is essential that the multi-professional team is attentive to the diagnosis and early interventions in order to seek the maintenance and/or recovery of the nutritional and functional status of the elderly, promoting a better quality of life and avoiding unfavorable outcomes.

Keywords : Malnutrition; Funcionality; Geriatrics.

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