Associations between nutritional status and abdominal adiposity with cognitive domains and depressive symptoms in older persons with multimorbidity: Understanding an understudied population

Background

Malnutrition is a prevalent issue among older persons and has been linked to adverse outcomes. Limited information exists regarding its connection with cognition and depression in older persons burdened by chronic diseases, experiencing heightened nutritional and psychosocial vulnerability. In this study, we examined the association between nutritional status, cognitive performance, and depressive symptomatology, in a cohort of older persons with multimorbidity.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study of 114 pluripathological older persons. Nutritional status was assessed through Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), body mass index (BMI) and waist and calf circumferences. Cognition was assessed using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and depressive symptoms were measured with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15).

Results

MNA score was positively correlated with the MoCA's visuospatial score (rho = 0.262) and, participants with normal nutritional status according to MNA, performed better in orientation (p = 0.037) and abstraction (p = 0.013) domains. MNA was also associated with depressive symptoms, with odds 8.6 times higher in malnourished participants (AOR 8.6, 95% CI 2.6–28.8, p = 0.000). Abdominal obesity, meanwhile, was associated with a decrease of 3.33 points in the overall MoCA score (β −3.33, 95% CI = −5.92; −0.73, p = 0.013).

Conclusion

In older persons with multimorbidity, abdominal obesity and malnutrition were factors associated with lower global and domain-specific cognitive performance and increased depressive symptomatology.