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Underweight Elderly in Danger of Death in Hospitals
Second study in a month indicating being underweight
increases death risk for elderly
May 25, 2005 – A new study has found underweight
elderly patients who have difficulty performing routine daily activities
such as eating and bathing are at greatest risk to die in the hospital.
Just last month the Centers for Disease Control tool a new look at their
obesity study and were most surprised to find 34,000 more deaths than
expected among underweight older people – mostly 70 or older.
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Related Story |
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Study Finds More Deaths Than Expected Among
Underweight Elderly
April 19, 2005 - The government issued new
statistics on obesity today, and, although it is clear that being
overweight can have fatal results, for the elderly being underweight
also appears lethal. The new study found 34,000 more deaths than
expected among the underweight and most of these deaths were among
people age 70 or older.
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more...
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The new Saint Louis University research is
published in the May/June issue of the Journal of Health, Nutrition, and
Aging, and are adjusted to factor in the severity of an illness and a
patient's nutritional status.
The study examined the medical records of more than
1,700 elderly patients who were hospitalized during a one-year period at
a university teaching hospital.
"The inability to care for yourself puts you at
greatest risk of death in a hospital," said David R. Thomas, M.D.,
professor of geriatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and
principal investigator for the study. "But that's wonderful news because
you can improve your ability to function with good physical therapy and
intensive rehabilitation."
Dr. Thomas says his is the first study that
examines connections between the many factors that influence death in
the hospital.
"Previous reports have examined individual factors
that influence hospital outcomes. Functional status, how sick the person
is, and his or her nutritional status have all been shown to be
important individually. We thought it was important to look at the
interaction among these different variables."
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Functional status is a person's ability to take
care of his own basic needs, such as feeding and dressing himself,
bathing, using the restroom, moving from a bed to a chair or walking.
"We discovered that the combination of functional
status and low body mass index best predict death in the hospital,"
Thomas said.
"This is good news because functional status can
potentially be corrected. We already are working on this at our
specialized ACE (Acute Care of the Elderly) Unit that encourages
hospitalized elderly patients to do as much as they can to care for
themselves as they recover from an illness. We want our patients to get
out of bed, join others in a dining area for meals, and walk to the
bathroom. We want to prevent their functional decline when they are in
the hospital."
The study found that a body mass index of less than
20 coupled with a person's inability to independently perform routine
daily activities is a marker of death during hospitalization.
Body mass index (BMI) is an indicator of body fat
based height and weight measurements. A BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is
considered normal.
The more unable a person is to perform independent
daily activities, the more likely the patient is to die in the hospital,
researchers found.
Thomas found that a declining body mass index and
difficulties caring for oneself are closely connected. As an elderly
person who has problems performing some daily activities loses weight,
he becomes increasingly unable to care for himself.
Source of the research
Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School
of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first M.D. degree west
of the Mississippi River. Saint Louis University School of Medicine is a
pioneer in geriatric medicine, organ transplantation, chronic disease
prevention, cardiovascular disease, neurosciences and vaccine research,
among others. The School of Medicine trains physicians and biomedical
scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health services on a
local, national and international level.
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