Researchers at the Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zaragoza have analyzed the relationship between the perimeter of the neck of people living in nursing homes and the probability of malnutrition. Values below 37.8 cm in men and 35.2 cm in women indicate risk.
Professionals working in nursing homes often detect possible cases of malnutrition by measuring some body circumferences of the elderly, such as the arm or calf. Now, a team of researchers from Zaragoza has found another part of the body that can serve as a reference: the neck.
To carry out their study, the authors crossed the anthropometric data of 352 people over five public residences in Zaragoza and with an average age of 83 years, with their results in a questionnaire called Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). This assessment tool is commonly used to identify elderly people who are malnourished or at risk of being.
Then statistical methods were applied to find the association between these two parameters, and the results, published in the journal Nutrition, confirm that the circumference of the neck, together with that of the calf, presents the best predictive value when diagnosing the risk of malnutrition among residents.
“In our work, the cut-off point to detect the risk of malnutrition was 37.8 cm in men and 35.2 cm in women, a limit to be taken into account by the staff of the residences,” says Beatriz Lardiés, researcher from the Miguel Servet University Hospital and co-author of the study.
Once the risk of malnutrition is detected —which in this case affected 48.3% of the women and 45.5% of the men studied— it is necessary to perform a complete nutritional assessment and consider other clinical and analytical parameters to check if the patient is really malnourished. If positive, then the necessary measures to reverse this situation would be put in place.
“The diagnosis of malnutrition cannot be made with a single anthropometric parameter, as is the case with the perimeter of the calf or the circumference of the arm, but it can help identify it,” said Lardiés.
Results extrapolated to similar groups
The researcher points out that, as this study has been carried out in nursing homes, “its results can be extrapolated to populations of similar characteristics, but we cannot assure that the cut-off points detected are valid in other population groups.”
The authors conclude that anthropometry is an easy and non-invasive method to quickly assess the nutritional status of older people, a segment of the population that continues to grow worldwide.
Source: SINC
