Comorbidities, polypharmacy, functionality and nutritional status in Turkish community-dwelling female elderly
- 30 April 2014
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
- Vol. 26 (3), 255-259
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-014-0229-8
Abstract
Most elderly persons live in developing countries where current geriatric epidemiological data are scarce. We aimed to study major comorbidities, polypharmacy, functional and nutritional status in a Turkish community-dwelling female elderly clinic population. Female geriatrics outpatient clinic patients were assessed cross-sectionally. Patients underwent comprehensive geriatric cassessment, including identification of chronic diseases, drugs, functionality, and nutrition. Comorbidities and drugs were defined by the review of patients’ self-reports and current medications. Geriatric depression and cognition were assessed by 30-item geriatric depression scale and Folstein mini-mental-state-examination. Functional status was assessed by the evaluation of activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales. Nutritional assessment was performed by mini-nutritional-assessment-short form. Five-hundred and fifteen patients were included in this study over an 8-year period. Mean age was 73.4 ± 6.9 years. Mean number of chronic diseases was 2.8. 61.1 % had >3 chronic diseases. Most common 3 diagnoses were hypertension (75.3 %), depression (45.5 %) and dementia (39.4 %). Mean number of drugs was 4.8. Polypharmacy was noted as 63.2 and 47.6 % by definitions as >4 or >5 chronic drug use, respectively. Subjects with at least one dependency of ADL and IADL were 23.4 and 64.0 %. Prevalence of poor nutrition was 39.1 %. In patients with at least one ADL or IADL dependency, undernutrition (p < 0.001), dementia (p < 0.001), cerebrovascular accident, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes were more prevalent (p < 0.05) and were taking higher number of drugs (p < 0.01). Polypharmacy and functional dependency seem to be prevalent among female elders in our country. Nutritional status was worse than the other reported urban area of Turkey and also than among males of same region but better than among Iranian counterparts. This study illustrates geographical differences in and between the individual countries and supports the continued need for comprehensive geriatric assessment worldwide.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Comprehensive assessment of malnutrition risk and related factors in a large group of community-dwelling older adultsClinical Nutrition, 2010
- Nutritional assessment interpretation on 22 007 Spanish community-dwelling elders through the Mini Nutritional Assessment testPublic Health Nutrition, 2009
- Pain, frailty and comorbidity on older men: The CHAMP studyPain, 2008
- Executive Function, More Than Global Cognition, Predicts Functional Decline and Mortality in Elderly WomenThe Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2007
- Communicating information about drug safetyBMJ, 2006
- Gender and adult undernutrition in developing countriesAnnals of Human Biology, 2003
- Screening for Undernutrition in Geriatric Practice: Developing the Short-Form Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF)The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 2001
- Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary reportJournal of Psychiatric Research, 1983
- “Mini-mental state”: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinicianJournal of Psychiatric Research, 1975
- Assessment of Older People: Self-Maintaining and Instrumental Activities of Daily LivingThe Gerontologist, 1969