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Factors associated with nursing in a group of older adults in ecuadorian rural areas

Abstract:

Introduction: Malnutrition is the deficit of energy, proteins and nutrients that affects the body, generating various changes in functionality and increasing morbidity and mortality in people. The nutritional risk in older adults is from 60 years old, due to physiological anatomical changes, these being of special interest in older adults. Objective: Determine the factors associated with malnutrition or risk of malnutrition in older adults who attend the Juan Pablo II Gerontological Center Materials and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out on 176 older adults who attend the Juan Pablo II Gerontological Center of the Sígsig Canton. Nutritional status was assessed by body weight, height and the application of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Barthel index. Statistical analysis used Pearson’s chi-square contrasts to observe association between the variables studied. Multi-nomial logistic regression models were calculated for the risk of malnutrition and malnutrition with the different factors. A value of p <0.05 was considered statistical significance Results: 72.2% of older adults are at risk of malnutrition, 17.6% presented malnutrition. Statistical association was found between malnutrition and risk of malnutrition with low economy (p=0.001), level of education (p=0.03), diabetes (p=0.019), deafness (p=0.012), facial paralysis (p=0.012), and with the functional dependence (p=0.0001). The variable degree of dependence (dependent adult) is a real risk factor associated with malnutrition with an Exp B (8.57) and risk of malnutrition with an Exp (16,943) Conclusions: Patients diagnosed with malnutrition and risk of malnutrition who go to the Gerontological Center Juan Pablo II presented both mild and moderate functional dependence after the evaluation of the Barthel Index being this a real factor associated with malnutrition and risk of malnutrition. In addition, the clinical history such as diabetes, facial paralysis and deafness, as well as low economy and the level of education presented a certain degree of association with the risk of malnutrition and malnutrition.