Nutritional risk and depression in adults over 60 years old

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The literature suggests that nutritional status is associated with the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms, but the association is still unclear. OBJECTIVES: Describe the association between malnutrition and depressive disorder. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, in 221 non-randomly selected, community dwelling, individuals. Data were collected through individual, face-to-face interviews, which included questions on health, nutritional status, sociodemographic characteristics, and the interviewer versions of the Mini Nutritional Assessment and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0, and statistical significance for all procedures was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The most prevalent clinical feature was pain during the last month (73.3%). 58 participants (26.2%) were at risk for malnutrition and 2 participants (0.9%) presented malnutrition. Depression was more prevalent in women (55.3%) than in men (37.5%). Odds to exhibit depression are 1.83 times higher (95% CI 1.16–3.68, p = 0.036) with malnutrition and 2.45 times higher (95% CI 1.25–4.78, p = 0.009) if reporting pain. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should consider the assessment and intervention for both depression and malnutrition when encountering one of these conditions. Acute pain seems to have a strong association with depression and must also be addressed and considered in this regard.