Adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Turkish hospitalized older adults and its association with hospital clinical outcomes.

AIM

To identify the Mediterranean diet adherence in Turkish older inpatients and its relation to clinical outcomes.

METHODS

A total of 200 hospitalized patients over 60 years old (mean age; 72.9 ± 8.5 years, 59.5% female) were included in the study. Beside evaluating the demographic properties, they were evaluated by Elderly Dietary Index (EDI), Mini-nutritional assessment-short form (MNA-SF), and FRAIL index. Length of hospital stay, need of intensive care, and hospital clinical outcomes were also recorded.

RESULTS

According to the EDI scoring, the rate of unhealthy diets among study population was 91.5% and 56% of the patients were frail and 17% were malnourished. EDI score was significantly and positively correlated with height (rho=0.183), weight (rho=0.142), MNA-SF score (rho=0.204), glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (rho=0.152), and alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) (rho=0.278) levels (p = 0.009; 0.046; 0.004; 0.032; and <0.001, respectively). EDI scores were higher in male and married patients when compared to female and widow ones (p = 0.001 and 0.023, respectively). There was a negative, moderate, and statistically significant correlation between EDI score and length of hospital stay in patients hospitalized for infectious diseases (rho:-0.510; p = 0.036). EDI score was also significantly related to frailty status (p = 0.017) and malnutrition (p = 0.026). The EDI score was found to be an independent parameter for frailty in a regression analysis model (OR=0.826;%95 CI: 0.713-0.959; p = 0.012).

CONCLUSION

It was shown that hospitalized older adults had a low adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Unhealthy diet group might be associated with poor clinical outcomes such as malnutrition, frailty, increased length of hospital stay, and recurrent emergency department admissions.