Associations Between Nutritional Status, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and Health-Related Variables and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Chinese Elderly Patients: A Multicenter Prospective Study

Abstract

Background: Studies that explore the nutritional status, sociodemographic factors, mental health variables, and physical health variables that affect the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of elderly patients are scarce in China. Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and nutritional status, sociodemographic characteristics, and health-related variables among Chinese elderly patients. Materials and Methods: Participants were recruited from six tertiary-level hospitals in six provinces or municipalities/cities throughout China from October 2018 to February 2019: a total of 9,996 participants aged 65 years and older were enrolled. The nutritional status and HRQoL were measured using the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) and the EuroQoL Five-Dimension Visual Analog Scale, respectively. BMI was taken using standard measurement protocols. Sociodemographic characteristics included age, sex, education, marital status, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol drinking, and current residence. Mental and physical health variables such as frailty and depression were assessed using validated tested instruments. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze whether the nutritional status, sociodemographic characteristics, and health-related variables were associated with HRQoL. Results: According to the MNA-SF scores at the 30-and 90-day follow-up, 9.7% and 9.1% of participants were malnourished, respectively. Higher MNA-SF scores were related to higher HRQoL scores in older patients (regression coefficient; 95% confidence interval) both at the 30-day (0.660; 0.499-0.821) and 90-day (0.622; 0.434-0.809) follow-up. However, there were no significant associations between the body mass index values and HRQoL. Sociodemographic characteristics (such as age, smoking, and current residence), physical health variables (frailty, urinary function, defecation function, sleeping condition, and falling accidents in the past 12 months), and mental health variables (depression) were the main factors influencing HRQoL in this group. Conclusion: There are several factors associated with HRQoL among the population derived from this investigation of a representative sample of the Chinese hospitalized elderly population in tertiary hospitals. These findings could have major importance for the planning of "active aging" policies and programs.

Malnutrition Is an Independent Risk Factor for Low Health-Related Quality of Life Among Centenarians

“…There are few relevant investigations on the community elderly population with a large sample, especially among the oldest members of the community. One study on 102 elderly people over 75 years of age belonging to the Garrucha (Almería) community in southern Spain was found (27). The results showed that the risk of malnutrition was significantly negatively associated with quality of life indices (P <0.05), similar to the conclusions from our study.…”

Attitudes toward successful aging in individuals with chronic disease aged 65 or over

“…Dziechciaż & Filip (2014) reported that the individual's self-perception plays a particularly important role in successful aging [10]. A multi-study center of individuals aged 65 and over from China reported no correlation between income status and quality of life [15]. Guo et al (2019) emphasized the importance of family support rather than economic status in active aging [16].…”

An early predictive model of frailty for older inpatients according to nutritional risk: protocol for a cohort study in China

“…Undernutrition is a frequent and serious condition within the geriatric population admitted to the hospital, and nutritional status often deteriorates further during hospitalization [8][9][10][11]. Therefore, during hospital admission or at discharge, a large number of older patients will still be malnourished or at risk of malnutrition [12,13].…”

“…The term undernutrition is used to refer to generally poor nutritional status; however, because malnutrition often refers to undernutrition, both terms are widely used in a similar sense [15,16]. Previous studies have reported that the prevalence of hospital malnutrition or malnutrition risk in older inpatients is high (30-50 %) [10,17,18]. Its negative impact on health substantially affects quality of life by increasing the risk of frailty, disability, and mortality [19,20].…”