Nutritional status of hospitalized elderly with coronary heart disease

Aim: The quantitative study aimed to assess nutritional status of elderly patients with coronary heart disease using two standardized tools. Design: A quantitative study. Methods: Data were obtained with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). In addition, sociodemographic data were collected and the Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living was used to assess patients’ functional independence. The sample comprised 103 patients staying on a cardiovascular ward between April and September 2018. Results: Based on assessment with MNA and MUST, malnutrition or the risk of malnutrition was revealed in approximately 37% and 26% of participants, respectively. Comparison of the two tools revealed significant statistical asymmetry between the results (p = 0.028). Full agreement was observed in 75.7% of participants, with a kappa coefficient of 0.44; this may be interpreted as “average” statistically significant agreement (p < 0.001). The study revealed statistically significant relationships between functional independence and nutritional status assessed with both the MNA (p < 0.001) and MUST (p = 0.001). There was also a statistically significant relationship between age and nutritional status assessed with both tools (p = 0.038). Conclusion: Over a third of elderly patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease staying on a cardiovascular ward suffered from malnutrition. Therefore, more attention should be paid to nutritional status of cardiac patients.