Nutritional status among older residents with dementia in open versus special care units in municipal nursing homes: an observational study

BMC Geriatrics

Research Article

Carine Aukner¹  Per Ole Iversen²  Helene Dahl Eide³ 

[1] Atlantis Medical College, Oslo, Norway;Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, POB 1046 Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway;Institute of Health, Nutrition and Management, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Kjeller, Norway;

关键词: Dementia;    Nursing home;    Nutritional status;    Open unit;    Special care unit;    Undernutrition;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2318-13-26

 received in 2012-08-25, accepted in 2013-02-26,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundUndernutrition is widespread among institutionalised elderly, and people suffering from dementia are at particularly high risk. Many elderly with dementia live in open units or in special care units in nursing homes. It is not known whether special care units have an effect on the nutritional status of the residents. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the nutritional status of residents with dementia in both open units and in special care units.MethodsAmong Oslo’s 29 municipal nursing homes, 21 participated with 358 residents with dementia or cognitive impairment, of which 46% lived in special care units. Nutritional status was assessed using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool and anthropometry.ResultsWe found no differences (p > 0.05) in risk of undernutrition, body mass index, mid-upper arm muscle circumference or triceps skinfold thickness between residents in open units and those in special care units. Residents in special care units were significantly younger and stronger when measured with a hand-grip test.ConclusionsWe found no difference in nutritional status between nursing home residents with dementia/cognitive impairment in open units versus in special care units.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Aukner et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.