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  • Original Article
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Nutritional status and survival among old adults: an 11-year population-based longitudinal study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 320–325 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

The impact of nutritional status on survival among community-dwelling older adults is unclear. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and association of poor nutritional status, including malnutrition and risk for malnutrition defined by the Mini-Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) with survival, and to explore the role of relevant biomarkers (hemoglobin, albumin and C-reactive protein) in this association.

Subjects/Methods:

This study included 3041 participants aged ⩾60 in the Swedish National study on Aging and Care-Kungsholmen. On the basis of the total score in MNA-SF, nutritional status for each participant was assessed as normal (score 12–14), risk for malnutrition (8–11) or malnutrition (<8). Over an 11-year follow-up, survival status was observed. Data were analysed using logistic regression, flexible parametric survival and Laplace models.

Results:

Of all the participants, 51 (1.7%) had malnutrition and 751 (24.7%) were at risk for malnutrition. The multi-adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of mortality was 2.40 (1.56−3.67; P<0.001) for malnutrition and 1.49 (1.29−1.71; P<0.001) for risk for malnutrition. The median ages at death of participants with malnutrition and risk for malnutrition were ~3 and 1.5 years shorter than those with normal nutritional status, respectively, whereas malnutrition or risk for malnutrition together with abnormal biomarker (hemoglobin and albumin) levels was related to 1 year more shortened survival.

Conclusions:

Malnutrition and risk for malnutrition are highly prevalent and significantly associated with a shorter survival. Poor nutritional status in combination with abnormalities in the biomarkers is associated with even more shortened survival.

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Acknowledgements

The Swedish National study on Aging and Care, SNAC, (www.snac.org) is financially supported by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden, the participating County Councils and Municipalities, and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant 825-2011-6243 to LF; and grant 2012-0022 to WX). In addition, specific grants were obtained from the Gun och Bertil Stohnes Foundation; Demensfonden; Tornspiran Foundation; and Ragnhild och Einar Lundströms Minne Foundation (grant LA2012-0508 to BS; Sweden). We specially thank the staff of the SNAC-K project for their collaboration in data collection and management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Aging Research Center, Center for Alzheimer Research, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    B Shakersain, G Santoni, D Rizzuto, L Fratiglioni & W Xu

  2. Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    G Faxén-Irving

  3. Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm, Sweden

    L Fratiglioni

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    W Xu

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  1. B Shakersain
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  2. G Santoni
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  5. L Fratiglioni
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Correspondence to B Shakersain or W Xu.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Shakersain, B., Santoni, G., Faxén-Irving, G. et al. Nutritional status and survival among old adults: an 11-year population-based longitudinal study. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 320–325 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.109

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