Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of improved nutritional status on activities of daily living (ADLs) and dysphagia in elderly patients with pneumonia who were admitted to acute care hospitals.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using registry data from the Japan Rehabilitation Nutrition Database of patients with pneumonia who were admitted to acute care hospitals. Patients were divided into two groups based on the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-Form (MNA-SF) status at discharge: Patients with no status change or with decreased status were allocated to the unimproved nutritional status (UN) group and those with increased status were assigned to the improved nutritional status (IN) group. The primary outcome was ADLs as assessed by Barthel Index (BI) score at hospital discharge. Secondary outcomes included dysphagia as assessed by the Food Intake Level Scale (FILS) at discharge.
Results: The study included 143 patients with a mean age of 84.7 ± 7.8 y. Based on the MNA-SF categories at discharge, 127 (88.8%) patients were assigned to the UN group and 16 (11.2%) to the IN group. Patients in the IN group had significantly higher BI and FILS scores than those in the UN group. Multiple regression analysis indicated that improvement in nutritional status was independently associated with BI gain (B = 9.916; β = 0.153; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.929-11.761; P = 0.017) and FILS gain (B = 1.259; β = 0.167; 95% CI, 1.224-2.814; P = 0.044).
Conclusions: Nutritional improvement is associated with improvements in ADL and dysphagia in patients with pneumonia and malnutrition.
Keywords: Dysphagia; Functional outcomes; Malnutrition; Pneumonia; Sarcopenia.
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