Undernutrition as independent predictor of early mortality in elderly cancer patients.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to evaluate the 1-y survival of elderly patients with cancer and the association between undernutrition and mortality.


METHODS
This was a cohort study with elderly patients ages ≥65 y admitted between September and October 2014. A nutritionist performed a Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) assessment during 48 h of hospital admission and collected data about potential confounding variables (comorbidities, stage of cancer, treatment in the previous 3 mo, and reason for hospitalization). Vital status was determined from the medical records or public records office. Overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression was performed to estimate unadjusted hazard ratios. Variables with P < 0.20 by univariate analysis were selected for multivariate analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.


RESULTS
Of the 136 patients (mean age, 73.1 y; 52.2% men), 29.4%, 41.2%, and 29.4% were classified as normal, at risk for undernutrition, and undernutrition, respectively, according to the MNA-SF. The mortality rate was 31.6% after 12 mo. One-year mortality was higher among the undernourished patients, followed by patients at risk for undernutrition. After adjustment for confounding variables, the multivariate regression Cox model showed that being undernourished according to the MNA-SF increased the risk for death at 1 y (hazard ratio, 5.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.8-17.3; P < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
The results showed that the MNA-SF can be a useful tool in identifying elderly patients at higher risk for 1-y mortality.
['Martucci|Renata B|RB|', 'Barbosa|Mariana V|MV|', "D'Almeida|Cristiane A|CA|", 'Rodrigues|Viviane D|VD|', 'Bergmann|Anke|A|', 'de Pinho|Nivaldo B|NB|', 'Thuler|Luiz Claudio S|LC|']
D000368:Aged D015992:Body Mass Index D015331:Cohort Studies D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D006760:Hospitalization D006801:Humans D008297:Male D044342:Malnutrition D015999:Multivariate Analysis D009369:Neoplasms D015596:Nutrition Assessment D016016:Proportional Hazards Models D012307:Risk Factors D016896:Treatment Outcome
Undernutrition Cancer Survival Aging Nutrition assessment