The nutritional status of the aging individual results from a complex interaction between personal and environmental factors. A disease influences and is influenced by the nutritional status and the functional capacity of the individual. We asses the relationship between nutritional status and indicators of functional capacity among recently hospitalized elderly in a general hospital.

Objective: To diagnose the nutrition status of hospitalized patients and identify the risk factors associated with hospital length of stay (LOS). Methods: The subjective approach and the body mass index (BMI) were used to classify the nutrition status, and other indicators (anthropometry, biochemistry, and energy intake) were analyzed regarding their association with length of hospital stay of 350 patients. The chi‐square test was used to compare proportions, and the Mann‐Whitney or Kruskal‐Wallis test was used to compare continuous measures. Linear association was verified using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Cox's regression model was used to investigate factors associated with LOS. Results: Disease was the factor that influenced LOS the most in the studied population. Longer LOS prevailed in males (P < .0001), patients aged ≥60 years (P = .0008), patients with neoplasms (P < .0001), patients who lost weight during their hospital stay (P < .0001), and malnourished patients (P = .0034). There was a negative and significant, but weak, correlation between LOS and nutrition indicators (calf circumference, arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, subscapular skinfold thickness, arm fat area, lymphocyte count, and hemoglobin). Among adults, well‐nourished patients were 3 times more likely to be discharged sooner (P = .0002, RR = 3.3 [1.7–6.2]) than those who had some degree of malnutrition. Well‐nourished patients with digestive tract diseases (DTD) were also discharged sooner than malnourished patients with the same condition (P = .02, RR = 2.5 [1.1–5.8]). In patients with neoplasms, arm circumference was an independent risk factor to assess LOS (P = .009, RR = 1.1 [1.0–1.1]). Conclusions: LOS was associated with disease and nutrition status. Among the more common diseases, nutrition status according to the subjective approach determined the LOS for patients with DTD and nutrition status according to arm circumference determined the LOS for patients with neoplasms.

BACKGROUND Older patients are commonly malnourished during hospital stay, and a high prevalence of malnutrition is found in hospitalized patients aged more than 65 years. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether total lymphocyte count is related to other nutritional markers in hospitalized older adults. METHODS Hospitalized older adults (N=131) were recruited for a cross-sectional study. Their nutritional status was assessed by the Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS), anthropometry, and total lymphocyte count. The statistical analyses included the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann-Whitney test. Spearman's linear correlation coefficient determined whether total lymphocyte count was correlated with the nutritional markers. Multiple linear regression determined the parameters associated with lymphocyte count. The significance level was set at 5%. RESULTS According to the NRS, 41.2% of the patients were at nutritional risk, and 36% had mild or moderate depletion according to total lymphocyte count. Total lymphocyte count was weakly correlated with mid-upper arm circumference (r=0.20507); triceps skinfold thickness (r=0.29036), and length of hospital stay (r= -0.21518). Total lymphocyte count in different NRS categories differed significantly: older adults who were not at nutritional risk had higher mean and median total lymphocyte count ( P =0.0245). Multiple regression analysis showed that higher lymphocyte counts were associated with higher triceps skinfold thicknesses and no nutritional risk according to the NRS. CONCLUSION Total lymphocyte count was correlated with mid-upper arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and nutritional risk according to the NRS. In multiple regression the combined factors that remained associated with lymphocyte count were NRS and triceps skinfold thickness. Therefore, total lymphocyte count may be considered a nutritional marker. Other studies should confirm these findings.

Objectives: To investigate nutritional markers that better predict nutritional risk according to the Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002), to verify agreement between indicators, and to identify the calf circumference cut-off point for diagnosing nutritional risk. Methods: Cross-sectional study with older patients hospitalized for neoplasms. The nutritional risk was assessed by NRS-2002 and the nutritional status by Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA long form), calf circumference (CC), and body mass index (BMI). Statistical analyses included the chi-square and Mann–Whitney tests, Kappa coefficient, univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses to analyze the risk factors, and the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve to determine the cut-off point. Results: The NRS-2002 and MNA had good agreement (k = 0.5281), but the NRS-2002 did not agree with the other nutritional indicators. According to regression analysis, the predictors of nutritional risk were the MNA (p = 0.0010, OR = 28.270); BMI (p = 0.0419, OR = 4.681), and age (p = 0.0021, OR = 1.309). The best CC cut-off point for predicting nutritional risk according to the NRS-2002 was ≤32.25 cm. Conclusion: Both the NRS-2002 and MNA are useful for the nutritional diagnosis of older adults hospitalized for neoplasms. When the MNA, BMI, and age are used together, they can better predict nutritional risk according to the NRS-2002.