Nutritional Assessment and sociodemographic factors, health conditions and habits associated in old people

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.20143803277285

Abstract

Given the need to determine factors associated to the incidence of chronic diseases, importance should be given to determining
the nutritional status and conditions associated to nutritional changes to health of the elderly population. In this
sense, the aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of underweight and overweight in the elderly and its association
to sociodemographic factors, health conditions and habits. We did an epidemiological cross-sectional study with
individuals ≥ 60 years from both genders. Eligible elderly answered a structured questionnaire and nutritional status was
determined by the body mass index. The study included 601 individuals, 6.5% were underweight, 43.80% were considered
eutrophic and 49.7% overweight. In the final model of the multivariate analysis for low underweight, only smoking
remained an associated factor (PR = 2.141; 95% CI: 1.180-3.883). As for overweight, females (RP = 1.254; 95% CI: 1.066-
1.476) remained associated to the presence of hypertension (RP = 1.368; 95% CI: 1.084-1.727) and diabetes (RP = 1.463;
95% CI: 1.265-1.694). This study identified a high prevalence of overweight as compared to underweight. We associated
underweight to smoking and overweight to females, and the presence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus.