Aspectos sociales y de salud como determinantes del estado nutricional y calidad de vida de las personas mayores

Abstract

Nutrition and quality of life are aspects mainly assessed in institutionalized elderly people. Studies done in large and representative samples of community-dwelling older adults are scarce. The aim of the present study has been to determine the effect of health status on the nutritional status and quality of life of the elderly, as well as to estimate the prevalence of cognitive impairment in urban and rural populations. A cross-sectional study was carried out within the VERISAÚDE project, on a representative sample of 749 people, representative of the older population of Galicia. The place of residence (urban vs. rural) was not significantly related to cognitive impairment; however, having an occupation requiring higher skill level was associated with less cognitive impairment. The presence of overweight or obesity, depressive symptoms, polypharmacy (use of five or more drugs), pre-frailty or frailty and poor self-perceived health were associated with malnutrition/at risk of malnutrition. The best predictors of poorer nutritional status have been polypharmacy and poor self-perceived health in women and overweight or obesity, depressive symptomatology and polypharmacy in men. On the other hand, in older people fulfilling one or two prefrailty criteria depressive symptomatology was the main determinant of poor quality of life in all domains of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOLBREF). Age was only associated with poor self-perceived health, female gender and low educational level were respectively associated with poor physical quality of life and poor health self-assessment, but only in older adults who met the criteria of frailty.