Abstract
BackgroundThere are few published studies investigating the nutritional status of elderly individuals with psychiatric disorders. This study aims to describe the nutritional status of elderly patients from a neuropsychiatry outpatient clinic, investigating their nutritional status according to the type of psychiatric diagnostic, specifically Alzheimer’s disease (AD), depression (DEP), and other types of dementia (OTD).MethodsElderly individuals from two outpatient clinics (n = 217) were evaluated for nutritional risk (using a validated tool) and for some anthropometric and biochemical measurements.ResultsWe found a high prevalence of nutritional risk in the sample (about 60%). The major dietary problems found were low daily meal frequency and the low daily intake of water. Biochemical analyses indicated blood glucose and total cholesterol to be above the reference values, while hemoglobin and vitamin D were below the reference values. Anthropometric measurements did not differ between the groups with different psychiatric diagnostics, except for calf circumference, which showed to be lower in the OTD group (p = 0.006).ConclusionsAlthough we found a high prevalence of nutritional risk, the differences between the diagnostic groups were very subtle. The nutritional risk is certainly associated with inadequate eating habits. It is necessary to seek strategies to improve the diet and other lifestyle factors in geriatric neuropsychiatry, in order to mitigate the negative outcomes brought about by the diseases.
Highlights
There are few published studies investigating the nutritional status of elderly individuals with psychiatric disorders
This study aims to describe the nutritional status of individuals registered and accompanied in a geriatric neuropsychiatry outpatient clinic
In order to investigate whether the different psychiatric diseases were associated with different nutritional status classification, the participants were distributed into three groups: depressive morbidity (DEP), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and other types of dementia (OTD), which included the patients with major cognitive disorders but did not meet the criteria of AD
Summary
There are few published studies investigating the nutritional status of elderly individuals with psychiatric disorders. This study aims to describe the nutritional status of elderly patients from a neuropsychiatry outpatient clinic, investigating their nutritional status according to the type of psychiatric diagnostic, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), depression (DEP), and other types of dementia (OTD). Aging is associated with the development of several noncommunicable diseases, including brain disorders [1, 2]. Among these disorders, dementias and depressive morbidity must be carefully understood, due to their emotional-, financial-, and health-related burden [3]. Some common factors involved in the development of depressive morbidity and dementias are modifiable [9, 10] and may be exploited to prevent or to attenuate the clinical manifestations of these diseases. It is important to remember that the brain is an organ with an intense metabolic activity, with a high-energy expenditure, and highly affected by nutritional deficiencies and imbalances
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