[The elderly living alone and malnutrition. SOLGER Study].

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to determine if there are any connections between living alone and suffering from malnutrition or having a risk of being malnourished, in people over 79years old in a Mediterranean population.

DESIGN

A questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional and multicentre study conducted between June and December 2014 in three Primary Care Centres (PCC).

PARTICIPANTS

A quota was chosen for each centre, including all patients over 79years, with a total of 167 people.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Was performed using SPSS. A first descriptive part was performed by calculating Chi squared and Student-t tests, and a second part in which logistic regression was used to determine if living was only related to the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) adjusted to age.

RESULTS

The scores of the nutritional study by MNA showed no differences between the groups according to the family unit as a differentiating factor. On the other hand, age does seem to be a determining factor.

CONCLUSION

Patients over 79years old and who live alone are nearly always independent for daily life activities, and often have a better state of physical and mental health. These factors could explain their better nutritional status, as living alone is not associated with states of malnutrition or having the risk of suffer from it.