Authors: Hasna Ballaziri, Nassim Essabah Haraj, Siham El Aziz, Asma Chadli.
Aims: To assess the nutritional status of elderly type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, to describe the undernutrition prevalence level and understand the driving factors.
Methods: Our study included 300 elderly T2D patients who were hospitalized in our unity, between 2016-2017. The assessment tool used was the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA).
Results: Patients’ average age was 71.7 years with a sex ratio of 0.68. Glycemic control was satisfactory within 39.7% of patients, two-thirds of them were treated by insulin therapy and more than half of them were following specific diets. Oral disorders were present within 63% of patients. Half were polymedicated and 15.33% weren’t autonomous. The MNA found that 14.33% of our patients were malnourished, 47.67% were at risk of malnutrition, whereas 38% had a satisfactory nutritional status. A positive correlation was found between poor nutritional status and advanced age, male sex, BMI, a restrictive diet, microangiopathy, loss of autonomy, oral and swallowing disorders. We did not find any correlation with the socio-economic level, diabetes duration, macroangiopathy, and polymedication.
Conclusion: Elderly diabetic patients’malnutrition increase morbidity and mortality, so it is important to evaluate their nutritional status in order to detect and treat an early malnutrition state for a better overall management.
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