Nutritional Status of Elderly Patients Visiting Outpatient Clinics

Nutritional Status of Elderly Patients Visiting Outpatient Clinics Dr. Saleh AL Nass1 , Dr. Fahad Al Shahrani2,3, Dr Saeed ur Rahman3 1

Primary Health Care Sector, Ministry of Health, Qatif, Saudi Arabia, 2 King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, College of Medicine., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 3 Department of Family Medicine,King Abdulaziz Medical City., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Paper num: 104

Background and Purpose

The number of elderly people is growing rapidly which will be followed by various health problems in this population. Nutritional status of elderly in either way, obesity or malnutrition can affect the overall health status of elderly people. Little is known about the nutritional status of elderly outpatients in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study is to assess the nutritional status of elderly patients visiting outpatient clinics.

Methods

Cross- sectional study conducted in Outpatient Department of King Abdul-Aziz Medical City,Riyadh between April and December 2013. A total of 363 participants were included (198 men and 165 women) aged 65 years or older.The nutritional status of participants were assessed using body mass index (BMI) and the Mini-Nutritional Assessment tool (MNA). The MNA consists of 18 questions about: anthropometric assessment , general assessment, dietary assessment and subjective assessment. Results were expressed as mean ± SD and in number and percentage. T-test was used to assess differences between male and female on MNA score. Pearson correlation was used to explore relationship between age, BMI and MNA score.

Results

The prevalence of malnutrition among elderly outpatient was 9.6% (MNA<17 points) and 27.5% were at risk of malnutrition (MNA 17 – 23.5 points) with no difference between male and female on MNA score ( t= -0.27,p=0.79). MNA total score was significantly lower with increasing age in both gender (r= -0.49,p<0.01).The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 30.9% and 27% respectively. Obesity was significantly higher among female than to male (72.4% vs.27.6%) (X²=39.5,p<0.01).Being obese was associated with decreasing age.(r= -0.22,p <0.01).

Conclusion

Nutritional problems are highly prevalent among elderly outpatient, reaching 36.6%(obesity=27%, malnutrition=9.6%). So, the nutritional status of elderly people needs to be assessed routinely for prevention, early identification and treatment.

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