Nutritional status of Chinese oldest-old adults (≥80 years of age): a cross-sectional study in Beijing

Background Nutrition is associated with frailty, functional impairments, and mortality in elderly people. Only a few studies focused on oldest-old hospitalized patients with worse health and more comorbidities compared with the general older adults in China. Objective This study aimed to investigate the nutritional risk, malnutrition, and nutritional support status of oldest-old hospitalized patients (>= 80 years of age) in China, and to provide a basis for implementing an effective nutritional intervention. Methods This study involved 358 oldest-old patients of Peking Union Medical College Hospital in China. The Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 scale was used to assess nutritional risk. Malnutrition was defined as body mass index (BMI) < 18.5 kg/m(2); or unwanted weight loss >10% at any time, or unwanted weight loss >5% in recent 3 months and BMI < 22 kg/m(2). Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with nutritional risk. Results The overall frequency of nutritional risk and malnutrition was 50.3% (180/358) and 36.0% (129/358), respectively. Also, 134 (37.3%) patients received nutritional support; the ratio of parenteral nutrition (PN) to enteral nutrition (EN) was 1.35:1. Further, 106 (58.9%) patients with nutritional risk received nutritional support. The number of chronic diseases and age were protective factors, and activities of daily living (ADL) were risk factors. Conclusions The overall frequencies of nutritional risk and malnutrition of oldest-old hospitalized patients were high, and the rates of EN and PN were low. Nutritional risk was associated with the number of chronic diseases, age, and ADL.