Abstract

PARENTE, Alexandra; PEREIRA, Ana Maria  and  MATA, Augusta. Nutritional Status and Independence Level in Elderly People. Acta Port Nutr [online]. 2018, n.12, pp.18-25. ISSN 2183-5985.  https://doi.org/10.21011/apn.2018.1204.

Introduction: Malnutrition is one of the main determinants of disease and decrease of quality of life. A bad nutritional status affects both physical and psychological health predisposing to the development of diseases and negatively affecting their prognosis. Objectives: To know the nutritional status and independency level of the elderly enrolled at the Health Center of Sta Maria - Bragança by establishing the relationship between the two variables. Methodology: From a population of 5373 elderly enrolled at the Health Center of Santa Maria in Bragança, a proportional sample stratified by sex and group of age of 385 elderly was studied. It was drawn a quantitative, observational, analytical and cross-sectional study. A structural interview was used to data collection where Mini Nutritional Assessment and Barthel Index were included. Results: As main results, it was found that 86,8% of the elderly is functionally independent and 13,3% has any type of dependency. By the use of Mini Nutritional Assessment, 0,8% of the elderly were identified as undernourished and 24,16% were at risk of undernourishment. It was still conclude that independent elderly have a higher probability of normal nutritional state when compared with those with mild or moderate dependency (p<0,001). Conclusions: Results allow us to conclude that nutritional status according to Mini Nutritional Assessment is significantly associated with the independence level of this older population. Taking into account the high number of elderly people in Portugal, we highlight the importance of screening nutritional status and its determinants as part of a multidimensional assessment of the elderly and consequent intervention in order to enhance their quality of life.

Keywords : Nutritional state; Elderly; Malnutrition; Independency level.

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