[Malnutrition and obesity in self-sufficient elderly and health determinants related to both nutritional disorders].

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate the nutritional status in older adults in the community, to determine malnutrition, obesity and their risks and to identify determinants related to both clinical situations.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study. SITE: 3 Primary care health centers in La Rioja in urban, semiurban and rural areas.

PARTICIPANTS

409 people ≥ 65 years old who came to receive consultation, with 3 abandonments.

INTERVENTIONS: Nutritional assessment by tools screening and anthropometric measurements.

MAIN MEASUREMENT: The MNA SF® was used to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and the BMI for obesity. Sociodemographic, socioeconomic, health-disease variables, lifestyle habits, metabolic status, and anthropometric measurements were included. Binary logistic regression was performed to predict dichotomous dependent variables.

RESULTS

The prevalence of malnutrition and its risk (DR) were 18.7% and obesity and its risk were 66,5%. The multivariate model for malnutrition and DR includes polypharmacy, dyslipidemia, sedentary lifestyle, and having mental pathology (OR=3.09, 2.01, 2.12, 1.72, respectively). On the other hand, the probability of presenting obesity is associated with cardiovascular risk, age, excessive-moderate alcohol consumption, hypertension and low adherence to the Mediterranean diet (OR=2.73, 4.27, 2.03, 1.97, 1.81 respectively).

CONCLUSION

This results stand out that the study population has a poor nutritional status, detecting a risk of malnutrition, obesity and overweight. The identified predictors related to lifestyle habits, presence of diseases, psychosocial problems, metabolic alterations, etc. They can guide the selection of those people who would benefit from screening to detect and approach the risk of malnutrition early.