Nutritional Assessment of Hip and Neck of Femur Fractures among Elderly Patients in Qatar

Abstract

Introduction: Femoral neck fractures is one of the most common traumatic injuries in elderly and increasing continuously worldwide. The study aims to assess malnutrition among elderly admitted with hip and femur fracture in Qatar using different variables before and after surgery.

Materials and methods: Cross sectional study of 93 patients (42 males, 51 females) with femur fracture (elderly over 65 years) admitted to Hamad General Hospital HGH for surgery within the study period. Malnutrition assessed using, Anthropometric measurements, Biochemical laboratory values before and after surgery. Food intake measured through tray percentage consumption of lunch tray and Geriatric Nutrition Risk Index (GNRI) calculated from variables collected.

Results: Using GNRI 26.44% of patients were malnourished and increased to 46.91% after surgery. All variables decreased with age; females have higher anthropometric values than males, but significant difference only found for MUAMC (p value <0.05). Widowed females and married males have more tendency for femur fracture/malnutrition. Biochemical laboratory values decreased significantly after surgery except lymphocyte count. Laboratory values strongly correlated with each other except lymph count, negative correlation between age and anthropometric measurements positive correlation between BMI and anthropometric measurements.

Conclusion: Laboratory values and food consumption were underestimated since blood transfer for some patients were not considered and those who did not eat were not included in calculation. All malnutrition assessment tools consider several variables to assess malnutrition the more variables assessed the better assessment tool.

Keywords: Malnutrition, femur fracture, elderly, anthropometric measurements.

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/105-04

Publication date: January 31^st 2023