Association of nutritional screening score and healthy ageing domains among urban elderly in Jakarta, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Nutritional status is a modifiable risk factor that could support healthy ageing outcome among elderly population. OBJECTIVE: To investigate association of nutritional status indicated by Mini Nutritional Assessment short form (MNA-SF) score with domains of functional ability, cognitive state, depression, and social engagement status. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 133 elderly aged >  60 years in five community health center across Jakarta province. MNA-SF was used to indicate nutritional status score. Functional ability measured based on activity daily living (ADL) score. Cognitive function measured based on Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. Geriatric Depression Scale short form (GDS-15) was used to measure depression and social engagement status measured based on social engagement index questionnaire. Association of study variables analyzed using linear regression test by considering possible confounders including age, sex, education, income, smoking status, and disease history. RESULTS: MNA-SF score reported to have positive correlation with domains of cognitive function (r = 0.25 p = 0.00) and social engagement status (r = 0.30 p = 0.00), but inverse correlation was found with depression symptoms (r = 0.24, p = 0.00). The association was remained significant in the multivariate analyses (cognitive function adjusted β= 0.18, p = 0.01; depression adjusted β= –0.38, p = 0.00; social engagement adjusted β= 0.23, p = 0.00). MNA-SF was not associated with functional ability domain in this study. CONCLUSIONS: Higher level of nutrition status was associated with better cognition, lower depression symptoms, and better social engagement of the healthy ageing domains, but it was not associated with functional ability domain among elderly.