Prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among the elderly population in Jiaxing City, China

Objective: Analysis on the nutritional status and its influencing factors of the elderly in care institutions in Jiaxing. Method: The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) was employed to screen the risk of malnutrition among individuals aged 60 years and older residing in these institutions. The single-factor and multi-factor logistic regression models were utilized to analyze the influencing factors. Results: A total of 373 subjects were included in this survey, and the age group of 80-89 years is the largest, accounting for 50.40%, while the 60-69 years age group is the smallest, accounting for 9.12%. One hundred seventeen subjects were at risk of malnutrition, accounting for 31.37% of total subjects. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the risk of malnutrition among the elderly in privately run and publicly owned care institutions is 0.19 times that of those in publicly constructed and owned care institutions (95% CI: 0.07-0.52). The risk of malnutrition among the elderly with the ability to go out independently is 0.01 times that of those bedridden individuals (95% CI: 0.00-0.07). The risk of malnutrition among the elderly without peptic ulcer is 0.39 times that in the affected individuals (95% CI: 0.16-0.98). Conclusion: The screening results for malnutrition risk among the elderly individuals in care institutions indicate that the proportion of elderly individuals at risk of malnutrition is relatively high. The risk of malnutrition is particularly increased for bedridden individuals and for those suffering from peptic ulcers.