Correlation of nutritional status in elderly patients with Alzheimer disease and self-efficacy of their caregivers

Objective To investigate the correlation between nutritional status in elderly patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and self-efficacy of their caregivers. Methods Ninety-two elderly patients with AD and 92 their caregivers were enrolled from a Peking Union Medical College in Beijing from March to October 2017, who were evaluated by the mini nutritional assessment short form (MNA-SF) and the general self-efficacy scale (GSES) respectively for the nutritional status of the AD patients and the self-efficacy of their caregivers, and the correlation between them was analyzed. Results The average MNA-SF score of the AD patients was 7.8±2.5. The incidence of malnutrition risk and malnutrition were 34.8% and 27.2% respectively. The MNA-SF score of the AD patients decreased (F=4.589, P=0.009), and the incidence of malnutrition risk (χ2=7.319, P=0.026) and malnutrition (χ2=7.080, P=0.032) increased significantly with the aggravation of AD. The average self-efficacy score of the caregivers was 2.20±0.45. With the aggravation of AD, the GSES score of the caregivers decreased significantly (F=3.122, P=0.016). There was a positive correlation between the nutritional status of the AD patients and the self-efficacy of their caregivers (r=0.254, P=0.022). Conclusion The nutritional status in elderly patients with AD is positively correlated with the self-efficacy of their caregivers, that is, the higher GSES score of the caregiver is, the better nutritional status of the AD patient has. Key words: Alzheimer disease; Elderly patient; Nutritional status; Caregiver; Self-efficacy