Abstract
BackgroundFrailty is a kind of geriatric syndrome, which is very common in the elderly. Patients with malnutrition are at higher risk of frailty. This study explored the correlation between nutrition and frailty and compared the receiver operating characteristic curve of different nutritional indexes for frailty.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 179 inpatients aged ≥65 years old. Frailty was measured using Fried Frailty Phenotype, handgrip strength was measured using JAMAR@Plus and the 4.57 m usual gait speed was measured using a stopwatch. Comprehensive nutritional assessment refers to the application of Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) to assess the nutritional status of patients.ResultsCompared with the non-frailty group, the upper arm circumference, calf circumference, hemoglobin, albumin, prealbumin, cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in the frailty group were lower (P < 0.05). Comprehensive nutritional assessment, whether as a categorical variable or a continuous variable, was significantly correlated with frailty (P < 0.05). Model1 showed that the risk of frailty in malnourished patients was 3.381 times higher than that in well nourished patients (P = 0.036). Model2 showed that the risk of frailty decreased by 13.8% for every 1 point increase in MNA score (P = 0.009). The area under the curves of albumin, prealbumin and hemoglobin was larger (AUC > 0.65), AUC was 0.718, 0.693 and 0.743, respectively.ConclusionsOur results suggest that malnutrition is closely related to frailty. As for single nutritional indexes, albumin, prealbumin and hemoglobin were found to be associated with frailty. Further cohort studies are needed to verify their ability to screen for frailty.
Highlights
Frailty is undoubtedly one of the most serious global public health challenges we will confront in the coming century
Malnutrition can significantly aggravate the development of frailty, because long-term malnutrition, insufficient protein and energy intake can lead to weight loss, fatigue, Liang et al BMC Geriatr (2021) 21:619 weakness, slow walking speed and low level of physical activity [7]
For a single nutritional index, our study found that albumin, prealbumin and hemoglobin are related to frailty, which provides a clue for screening frailty in the future
Summary
Frailty is undoubtedly one of the most serious global public health challenges we will confront in the coming century. Nutrition is a crucial factor closely related to frailty syndrome [6]. The pathophysiology of frailty is complex and multifactorial, and nutrition is an important mechanism of its pathogenesis and a specific target of treatment [8]. People are more and more interested in the relationship between frailty and nutrition, but previous studies rarely compared the relationship between different nutritional indicators and frailty, so these variables were studied in this study. The results can be used as an important clue to provide nutritional care for elderly patients. Frailty is a kind of geriatric syndrome, which is very common in the elderly. This study explored the correlation between nutrition and frailty and compared the receiver operating characteristic curve of different nutritional indexes for frailty
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