Abstract
ObjectiveDue to an increase in aging worldwide, assessment of the nutritional status of older people becomes an important matter. Malnutrition in older people increases the risk of infections, disease period and hospitalization rates. This study aimed to compare the different anthropometric indices for detecting malnutrition among older people and comparing these indices among males and females to explain the possible differences.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 2721 aged 65 years and older in Turkey were enrolled. Anthropometric measurements weight, height, hip circumference (HC), and waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AC), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), triceps skinfold thickness (TST), calf circumference (CC)) were measured. Body mass index (BMI), abdominal volume index (AVI), body roundness index (BRI) and body adiposity index (BAI), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) indices were calculated using standardized formulas. The receiver operator characteristic curves (ROCs) were conducted in detecting the best anthropometric parameters. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) (stratified by sex) calculated for each anthropometric index.ResultsParticipants with both BMI < 18.5 (1.1%) and BMI > 25 (80%) defined as the malnourished group and BMI of 18.5–24.99 (18.9%) defined as the normal group. In both sexes, the area under the curve (AUC) was > 0.7 for all anthropometric indices except WHR in females (AUC 0.66). BRI, WHR, WHtR, and AVI indices strongly predict the risk of malnutrition among both sexes. In males, the ORs were for BRI (6.83, 95% CI 5.39–8.66), WHR (6.43, 95% CI 5.9–6.9), AVI (2.02, 95% CI 1.86–2.12). In females, the ORs were for BRI (3.72, 95% CI 3.09–4.48), WtHR (2.63, 95% CI 1.3–3.5), and WHR (2.45, 95% CI 1.9–3.06).DiscussionThe presence of a large AUC in almost all anthropometric indices suggests that they can be used to assess the risk of malnutrition among older persons in both sexes.
Highlights
area under the curve (AUC) was for both waist-to height ratio (WHtR) and body roundness index (BRI) (0.93, 95% CI = 0.91–0.94), arm circumference (AC) (0.92, 95% CI = 0.91–0.93), UAC (0.89, 95% CI = 0.87–0.91), Hip circumference (HC) (0.86, 95% CI = 0.0.85–0.9), both of body adiposity index (BAI)
The results showed that only 18.9% of participants had the normal status while 81.1% of them were malnourished
Setiati et al reported that 45.01% of older people had normal nutritional status based on body mass index (BMI) and 54.99% of them were malnourished in Indonesia [45]
Summary
The number of people aged 65 or over is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050, with most of the increase in developing countries in recent years [1, 2]. Physiological changes such as a decreased sense of taste or smell, or both in older people can related with adversely nutritional status. Nutritional status of older people is an important factor and it related with quality of life among them [4]. Poor nutritional status in older people increases the risk of infections, disease period, poor wound healing, hospitalization rate, postoperative complications [7,8,9,10,11]
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