Malnutrition and Influencing Factors in Aged Patients: A Hospital-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Malnutrition refers to a nutritional ailment that functionally and clinically distresses the body. It is very common in aged people. The nutritional status of this vulnerable group in low-income countries does not remain focused upon. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the magnitude of malnutrition and to correlate different factors amongst aged patients administered in a reputed Medical College Hospital in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional eminence of hospitalized aged patients through the original 18-item full Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) screening tool. We evaluated 238 patients in this study. Of whom, 144 (60.5%) were men and 94 (39.5%) were women, whose average age were 68.7 ± 7 years. MNA revealed a prevalence of 46.2% for risk of malnutrition, 31.9% for malnutrition, and 21.8% for within normal. Aged patients who lived alone were malnourished than the patients living with others (p < 0.001). Laboratory investigation revealed that malnourished individuals had substantively decreased levels of serum albumin (2.5 ± 0.7 g/dl), hemoglobin (10.3 ± 1.7 g/dl), lymphocytes (1.4 ± 0.9×10^9/L), and cholesterol (150 ± 35.9 mg/dl). About forty-nine and 32.9 percent of individuals with malnutrition had a severe or a moderate decrease in food intakes respectively. Different health problems collectively had influenced malnutrition. Malnourished patients had a tendency to hospitalize for a longer period of time. Thus malnutrition in hospitalized aged patients was highly prevalent and was associated with low food intake, the presence of health problems, and prolonged length of hospital stay.