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Nutrition, general health status and oral health status in hospitalised elders.
Journal article

Nutrition, general health status and oral health status in hospitalised elders.

  • 1995-12-01
Published in:
  • Gerodontology. - 1995
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Body Mass Index
Chi-Square Distribution
Female
Geriatric Assessment
Hospitalization
Humans
Male
Mouth Diseases
Protein-Energy Malnutrition
Saliva
Secretory Rate
Serum Albumin
Skinfold Thickness
Statistics, Nonparametric
Tooth Diseases
English Biological malnutrition was assessed and correlated with salivary flow rates and oral health in 99 elderly, hospitalised non-psychiatric patients. The indicators of protein malnutrition used were arm circumference and serum albumin level and the indicators of energy malnutrition the body mass-index and the triceps skin-fold thickness. Unstimulated and stimulated salivary flow rates were measured according to Sreebny et al. Of the patients, 40% showed severely and 46% moderately reduced serum albumin levels and the anthropometric measurements indicated malnutrition in about 50%. Unstimulated hyposialia (< or = 0.1 ml/min) and stimulated hyposialia (< or = 0.5 ml/min) were observed in 17% and 26.5%, respectively. Significant associations (P < or = 0.05) were found between stimulated/unstimulated hyposialia and biological malnutrition. There was a negative relationship between the number of masticatory movements until swallowing a standard biscuit and skin fold thickness (P < or = 0.05). Current weight loss and biological malnutrition were related to poor appetite (P < or = 0.05). The study has confirmed poor general and oral health status as well as protein-energy malnutrition among elderly hospitalised patients. This situation was associated with loss of appetite, reduced salivary flow rates and a certain impairment of masticatory function which could jeopardise the reversibility of malnutrition and lead to increased morbidity and mortality.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/5176
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