Frailty syndrome and nutritional risk among older adults

Introduction

Both frailty syndrome (FS) and malnutrition can lead to loss of independence in old age.

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between frailty syndrome and the nutritional risk of older adults.

Methods

The study was conducted among 303 community-dwelling volunteers aged over 60 in Poland. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator was used to assess frailty syndrome (FS). The Mini Nutritional Assessment (full version) was used to assess nutritional risk.

Results

Among people with FS (53.1%), compared to those without FS (46.9%), there were statistically significantly more women (61.5% vs. 49.3%), a higher average age (73.3 vs. 70.3 years) and BMI (28.1 vs. 26.7), as well as more solitary individuals (43.5% vs. 18.3%), with self-rated health status as bad or average (73.9% vs. 35.2%) and those with low physical activity (61.5% vs. 45.1%). Among all TFI components, the most common were physical fatigue (59.3% of respondents), poor eyesight (58%) and nervousness (54.1%). Almost half of the group reported feeling down (49.5%) and missing company (46.9%).

Among people with FS, compared to those without FS, there were significantly more people with malnutrition (6.1% vs. 2.5%) and with nutritional risk (31.6% vs. 15.2%). The final score was significantly higher among people without FS (25.7 points) than among people with FS (23.9 points).

Regression analysis adjusted for age and sex showed that nutritional risk, but not malnutrition, was strongly associated with FS (p=0.027; OR=2.353; 95%CI 1.104-5.013).

Conclusions

This study confirmed a significant association between the frailty syndrome and the nutritional risk of older adults. In terms of prevention, but also clinical application, it seems important to control the nutritional status of the elderly and the frailty syndrome.