Nutritional risk and adverse health outcomes in Chinese community-dwelling older adults: a study based on Elderly Nutritional Indicators for Geriatric Malnutrition Assessment (ENIGMA)

Abstract

ObjectivesMalnutrition and nutritional risk are risk factors for many adverse health outcomes in older adults, but they have rarely been assessed in China. The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of Elderly Nutritional Indicators for Geriatric Malnutrition Assessment (ENIGMA), a nutritiona scale originally developed to predict mortality, in assessing nutritional risks and predicting adverse health outcomes in Chinese community-dwelling older adults. MethodsThis was a population-based longitudinal cohort study (Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, CLHLS), with a 4-year follow-up of 2063 community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years. Nutritional risks were assessed via ENIGMA and Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) at baseline (the 2014 wave). Cognitive impairment, functional limitation and frailty were evaluated using the Chinese version of MMSE, ADL/IADL scale and Frailty index, respectively, at baseline and 4-year follow-up (the 2018 wave). Mortality was measured by survival status and duration of exposure to death from baseline to follow-up. The associations of nutritional risks with prevalent/incident cognitive impairment, functional limitation and frailty, and 4-year mortality were estimated using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression models, adjusting for confounders. The discriminatory accuracy of ENIGMA and GNRI for the above adverse health outcomes were assessed and compared the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. ResultsAccording to ENIGMA, 48.6% of the Chinese community-dwelling older adults (age: 86.5±11.3 years) showed moderate and high nutritional risk. Nutritional risks defined by the ENIGMA were significantly associated with increased prevalence and incidence of cognitive impairment, functional limitation and frailty [odds ratio (ORs) ranging from 1.79 to 89.6, P values ranging from <0.001 to 0.048], but were mostly insignificant for that defined by GNRI. With respect to 4-year mortality, Nutritional risks as defined by GNRI showed better predicting effects than those defined by ENIGMA. ROC analyses indicated that nutritional risks defined by ENIGMA had better discriminatory accuracy than those defined by GNRI for prevalent and incident cognitive impairment (C=0.73 vs 0.64, P<0.001; C=0.65 vs 0.59, P=0.015, respectively), functional limitation (C=0.74 vs 0.63, P<0.001 at baseline; C=0.61 vs 0.56, P=0.016 at follow-up), frailty (C=0.85 vs 0.67, P<0.001 at baseline; C=0.64 vs 0.55, P<0.001 at follow-up), and even 4-year mortality (C=0.68 vs 0.64, P=0.020). ConclusionsENIGMA could serve as a nutritional risk screening tool that has a robust predicting role for cognitive impairment, functional limitation, and frailty in Chinese community-dwelling older adults. It may be recommended for early nutritional risk screening and have the potential to guide early nutritional intervention in communities and primary care settings in China.