Nutritional status of Catalonia's elderly people with different health care needs

The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of malnutrition through the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in the elder population of Lleida (Catalonia) from different levels of care and to determine if that scale is a good way of monitoring our population. A cross-sectional study was designed. It included men and women of 65 years or more users of primary health care centre, the acute hospital, nursing home and health and assisted social services. The MNA was used in your short form (MNA-SF) and MNA total (MNA). This questionnaire is designed to screen the nutritional status of elderly people, when they arrived to the hospital and during their stay. Three hundred and ninety-eight individuals (184 men) were included aging 77 on average. According to the categories of the MNA, the prevalence of malnutrition of the total sample was 22.6% and risk of malnutrition of 35.4%. The MNA has been validated in our population getting a sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 70%. In conclusion, it can be affirmed that there was a high prevalence of undernourishment, foremost in health and social care services and in the medicine service of acute hospital. The MNA is a useful tool for monitoring nutritional care at different levels in both the short form and in total form.