Original study
Malnutrition and Depression among Community-dwelling Elderly People

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2007.07.008Get rights and content

Objectives

This study had the objective of analyzing the association between nutritional deficit and the presence of depression among community-dwelling elderly people.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

Population of elderly people living in one district of a city in southern Brazil. Participants: The subjects were 267 individuals aged 60 to 74 years who did not present any significant functional incapacity.

Measures

Nutritional deficit was considered to be present if the individuals were classified as malnourished or at nutritional risk by means of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Depression was identified as regular use of antidepressives or scores higher than 5 points on the Geriatric Depression Scale.

Results

A majority of the elderly individuals were female (59.9%). Nutritional deficit was identified in 58 elderly people (21.7%) and depression in 65 (24.3%). Nutritional deficit presented a significant association with depression, even after adjusting for control variables such as low schooling, low socioeconomic level, and smoking (OR = 4.38; 95% CI: 2.23–8.64; P < .001).

Conclusions

The results showed that there was an independent association between nutritional deficit and depression in this population of elderly people, which emphasizes the importance of early identification of depression among individuals with nutritional disorders.

Section snippets

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study among a population of individuals aged 60 to 74 years who were living in one district of the city of Londrina, in the southern region of Brazil. The exclusion criterion used was the presence of significant functional dependence such that the individual remained restricted to bed. The data were gathered by a team of trained investigators after carrying out a pilot study to refine the instrument used.

Nutritional deficit was taken to be the dependent variable. It

Results

There were 323 elderly people eligible for the study. Out of this total, 13 (4.0%) refused to take part and 43 (13.3%) could not be located in their homes after 3 attempts. Thus, the sample studied consisted of 267 elderly individuals, with predominance of females (59.9%). Most of the individuals (79.4%) said they had a low schooling level and half of them (48.3%) presented low socioeconomic level.

The presence of nutritional deficit was identified in 58 individuals, of whom 5 were malnourished

Discussion

Analysis of the data showed that, among this population of community-dwelling elderly individuals who were of low schooling and low socioeconomic levels, there was an association between nutritional deficit and presence of depression.

The sample was made up of noninstitutionalized elderly people of maximum age 74 years and without any great functional dependence. This selection of an elderly population with lower prevalence of comorbidities is a point that deserves to be highlighted in this

Conclusion

The evidence of a relationship between depressive symptoms and nutritional deficit among healthy elderly people strengthens the need for wide-ranging geriatric assessments that include the nutritional and psychological characteristics of this age group. A systematic approach of this nature will make it possible to identify these disorders at an early stage, thereby favoring the adoption of intervention measures that ensure adequate health conditions for this population.

References (20)

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    Previous studies consistently found an association between (proxies for) AA and depression. Nonetheless, these studies were conducted in the general population, used screening scales to detect depression, and/or evaluated weight loss or malnutrition instead of changes in appetite or anorexia (Cabrera, Mesas, Garcia & de Andrade, 2007; Kimura et al., 2012). To our knowledge, no study has examined AA and depressive disorder according to DSM criteria in a clinical sample of geriatric outpatients.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest.

This research was supported in part by Araucária Fundation and Capes.

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