Nutritional status in community-dwelling elderly in France in urban and rural areas

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 18;9(8):e105137. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105137. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Malnutrition is a frequent condition in elderly people, especially in nursing homes and geriatric wards. Its frequency is less well known among elderly living at home. The objective of this study was to describe the nutritional status evaluated by the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) of elderly community-dwellers living in rural and urban areas in France and to investigate its associated factors.

Methods: Subjects aged 65 years and over from the Approche Multidisciplinaire Intégrée (AMI) cohort (692 subjects living in a rural area) and the Three-City (3C) cohort (8,691 subjects living in three large urban zones) were included. A proxy version of the MNA was reconstructed using available data from the AMI cohort. Sensitivity and specificity were used to evaluate the agreement between the proxy version and the standard version in AMI. The proxy MNA was computed in both cohorts to evaluate the frequency of poor nutritional status. Factors associated with this state were investigated in each cohort separately.

Results: In the rural sample, 38.0% were females and the mean age was 75.5 years. In the urban sample, 60.3% were females and the mean age was 74.1 years. Among subjects in living in the rural sample, 7.4% were in poor nutritional status while the proportion was 18.5% in the urban sample. Female gender, older age, being widowed, a low educational level, low income, low body mass index, being demented, having a depressive symptomatology, a loss of autonomy and an intake of more than 3 drugs appeared to be independently associated with poor nutritional status.

Conclusion: Poor nutritional status was commonly observed among elderly people living at home in both rural and urban areas. The associated factors should be further considered for targeting particularly vulnerable individuals.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Female
  • France
  • Geriatric Assessment
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Nutrition Assessment*
  • Nutritional Status*
  • Residence Characteristics
  • Rural Population
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The 3C Study is conducted under a partnership agreement between the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), the Victor Segalen – Bordeaux II University and the Sanofi-Synthélabo Company. The Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale funded the preparation and initiation of the study. The 3C Study is also supported by the Caisse Nationale Maladie des Travailleurs Salariés, Direction Générale de la Santé, Conseils Régionaux of Aquitaine, Languedoc-Roussillon and Bourgogne, Fondation de France, Ministry of Research-INSERM Programme ‘Cohortes et collections de données biologiques’, Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale, Institut de la longévité, Conseil Général de la Côte d'or. The authors thank the Génopôle of Lille, the Laboratory of Biochemistry of the University Hospital of Dijon (Prof. Gambert) and Montpellier (Prof. Descomps), the Neuroradiology Departments of the University Hospitals of Bordeaux (Prof. Caillé), Dijon (Prof. Krausé) and Montpellier (Prof. Bonafé), the University Hospital Gui de Chauliac in Montpellier, the Council of Dijon and the Conseil Général of Côte d'Or. The 3C Study supports are listed on the Study website (www.three-city-study.com). The AMI project was funded by AGRICA (CAMARCA, CRCCA, CCPMA PREVOYANCE, CPCEA, AGRI PREVOYANCE), la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA) de Gironde, la Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (CCMSA). The authors declare that the funders of the cohorts and the commercial company that finance some authors of this paper had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.