Nutritional status in 57 elderly patients hospitalised in a rehabilitationunit: influence of causing disease.

Purpose. - To study the nutritional status in elderly patients hospitalized for rehabilitation and to compare it among patients with hip fracture and those with medical care. Methods. - Patients were nutritionally assessed upon admission (d0) to our unit by measurement of anthropometric, biological parameters and dietary in take. Thrirty-seven patients were operated for hip fracture (group I) and 2 1 were hospitalised for medical disease (group II). Nutritional status was compared in the two groups on d0 and was evaluated after one month (d30) in the operated group. Results. - No significant difference could be observed for any anthropometr ic or biologic (albumin, transthyretin and transferrin) in the two groups. Daily food intake related to body weight was much the same in both groups ( 31 kcal/kg). C-reactive protein and orosomucoid levels were above the refer ence range in both groups. Hip fracture operated patients had higher orosom ucoid than non-operated ones (1.50 +/- 0.4 versus 1.14 +/- 0.4 g/L; P = 0.0 02). One-month follow-up of nutritional status performed in 31 operated pat ients showed a significant decrease in TST and MAC (respectively p = 0.02 a nd p = 0.007) and in orosomucoid (p = 0.003) although daily food intake inc reased. Conclusion. - Twenty-eight percent of patients were undernourished upon adm ission in the unit. A moderate inflammatory state still remained in all our patients, particularly in those who had undergone surgery. This inflammato ry state persisted two months after surgery. (C) 2001 Editions scientifique s et medicales Elsevier SAS.