Nutritional Status of Older Persons Presenting in a Primary Care Clinic in Nigeria

• Published in: Journal of nutrition in gerontology and geriatrics Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 71 - 85
• Main Authors: Adebusoye, L. A, Ajayi, I. O, Dairo, M. D, Ogunniyi, A. O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis Group 2012; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Body Mass Index; constipation; Cross-Sectional Studies; elderly; Female; gender; Geriatric Assessment; Gerontology; hemorrhage; Humans; Ibadan; Interviews as Topic; Male; malnutrition; Malnutrition - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Nigeria; Nigeria - epidemiology; Nursing; Nutrition Assessment; Nutritional Status; Older people; older persons; overweight; Overweight - epidemiology; patients; Prevalence; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Regression analysis; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; sociodemographic characteristics; Surveys and Questionnaires; teeth; tongue; Nigeria
• ISSN: 2155-1200; 2155-1197; 2155-1200
• DOI: 10.1080/21551197.2012.647560

The study objective was to determine the nutritional status and its association with sociodemographic characteristics and health complaints of older persons presenting at the General Outpatients Department (GOPD) Clinic of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to select 500 consecutively presenting participants aged 60 years and older between September and December, 2009. The Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) tool and body mass index were used to assess undernutrition and overweight, respectively. The prevalence of nutritional problems was 61.9% (undernutrition = 7.8% and overweight = 54.1%). Being unmarried (P < 0.001), engagement in a job after the age of 60 years (P < 0.001), constipation (P = 0.009), rectal bleeding (P = 0.008), and oral problems (mouth, teeth, and tongue) were significantly (P < 0.001) associated with undernutrition. Younger age (P = 0.050) and female gender (P = 0.011) were significantly associated with being overweight. Logistic regression analysis showed being unmarried OR = 1.355 (95%CI 1.075–1.708) to be the most important factor for the development of undernutrition. The high prevalence of nutritional problems in this study underscores the need for intervention in this population. Correlation analysis (Pearson's) showed a positive association between BMI and MNA scores (r = 0.152, P = 0.001).