Predictors of two-year mortality in older nursing home residents. The IRA study

Besides functional impairment, several factors have been associated with mo rtality in institutionalized older subjects, including advanced age, gender , comorbidity, and malnutrition. We investigated the possible association o f a large number of factors, including functional, anthropometric nutrition al, metabolic, clinical, and demographic variables, with two-year all-cause mortality in a sample of 344 institutionalized older subjects greater than or equal to 65 years) without evidence of acute illness at the rime of obs ervation. Although a number of factors were associated with mortality risk, multivariate analysis showed that only severe disability (6 vs 0-1 lost AD L, O.R.: 3.37 C.I. 95%: 1.76-7.3) and low albumin levels (lowest vs highest tertile: O.R.: 3.0, C.I. 95%: 1.65-5.43) were independent predictors of ou tcome. Moreover, in the analysis stratified for degree of disability and al bumin tertiles, Lye found a strong gradient in mortality risk with increasi ng disability and decreasing albumin levels. These results further support the value of these two simple parameters in identifying frail institutional ized older individuals. (C) 2001, Editrice Kurtis.