Nutritional status in elderly hospitalized with dementia: an integrative review

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Objective: To analyze the nutritional status of elderly people hospitalized with dementia in the international and national literature. Method: An integrative review of original articles was performed with the following descriptors: “Aged”, “Nutritional status”, “Dementia”, “Hospitalization”, in the databases of the National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (PubMed), Scopus (Elsevier) and in the Virtual Health Library (VHL), in Portuguese, English and Spanish between the years 2011-2021. Articles published in media other than scientific journals, studies not available online, duplicate articles and that did not address the topic were excluded. The survey was conducted from May to July and updated in August 2021. Results: 257 scientific articles were evaluated after applying limits and filters, 10 articles were analyzed for this integrative review. This review showed that malnutrition can vary according to the state of functionality, stage of dementia and the presence of factors associated with food consumption, such as dysphagia. The percentage of malnutrition in elderly hospitalized with dementia ranged from 37.8% to 83%. Conclusion: The findings of this analysis showed that there was an association between dementia and nutritional status, especially malnutrition, in addition to other important consequences triggered by dementia in all its stages. The work with the multidisciplinary team is extremely important to preserve the quality of life of elderly patients with dementia.