Nutritional status and socioeconomic and health conditions in elderly

Aim: To evaluate the nutritional status of the elderly and its relationship with socioeconomic factors and comorbidities. Methods: Transversal descriptive analytic study with a quantitative approach. Sample consisted of 240 elderlies assisted in the Family Health Strategy in a Regional Hospital in Teresina-PI. Socioeconomic and health information were collected by interviews. Nutritional status was assessed using Body Mass Index (BMI) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Statistical analysis was performed by applying the Chi-square test and Fisher exact test, with 5% significance level. Results: It was found a decrease of overweight and obesity and raise of low weight with increasing age. Excess weight was associated with higher monthly income, while the low weight predominated in older people with lower income. Most of the elderly (87.1%) reported having some kind of disease, and about half of them had three or more morbidities. Hypertension and joint system diseases (rheumatism / arthritis / osteoarthritis) were the most frequently mentioned in the study group. Only cardiovascular disease and hypertension showed statistically significant association with nutritional status. Conclusion: In the study group, age and income were related to nutritional status. Overweight was frequent and associated to comorbidities, cardiovascular disease and hypertension.