Nutritional status, functional capacity and quality of life among elderly in Lugazi municipality, buikwe district

Abstract

Background: Every country in the world is facing a new demographic challenge due to drastic growth of elderly population. Adequate diet, nutritional status and functional capacity are important determinants of health status among this age group. With malnutrition, functional dependence and quality of life becoming serious health burdens among the elderly, there is need for early identification of the factors associated with nutritional status and functional capacity as a way to improve the health status and quality of life of aging individuals. Objectives: This study aimed at identifying the factors associated with nutritional status and functional capacity among elderly in Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe district. Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study among elderly persons aged 65 – 85 in 50 randomly selected Villages between September and December 2021. Simple random sampling technique was used with a sample size of 353 participants. Nutritional status was assessed by Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA), functional capacity was assessed by Lawton – Broody activities of daily living questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while the associations were determined by logistic regression method. Results: Among 353 participants, 26.9% (n=95) were found to be with a normal nutritional status, 47.0% (n=166) were at risk of malnutrition and 26.1% (n=92) were malnourished. 14.7% (n=52) were found to be dependent, 79.0% (279) had moderate independence while 6.2% were independent regarding instrumental activities of daily living. The factors associated with nutritional status among elderly after controlling for confounders in multi-variate logistic regression analysis were age 1.5 (1.38-1.59, p<0.001), gender 0.5 (0.36-0.79, p<0.002), level of education 0.8 (0.06-0.50, p=0.001), marital status 1.8 (1.23-2.72, p=0.003) and depression 1.9 (1.32-2.98, p=0.001) while functional capacity was associated with age 0.7 (0.6-0.8, p<0.001), marital status 0.2 (0.1-0.5, p=<0.001) and quality of life 0.1 (0.0-0.4, p<0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of malnutrition among the elderly was high. Therefore additional steps to prevent, treat and care for the affected elderly is required. Social protection initiates such as the SCG should be made more nutritional sensitive to improve elderly nutrition directly. Elderly Empowerment Groups should also be formed at community level to engage in nutrition sensitive activities. Malnutrition and functional dependence were prevalent among the elderly and were associated with gender, age, level of education, marital status, quality of life and depression among the elderly persons in Lugazi Municipality. Keywords: Elderly Persons, Nutritional Status, Functional Capacity, Quality of Life, Depression