Author(s): Trigo, Vânia ; Pinto, Isabel C. ; Almeida-de-Souza, Juliana
Date: 2021
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/28575
Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
Subject(s): Cognitive function; Food habits; Adductor pollicis muscle thickness; Tricipital skinfold thickness; Seniors; Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY::Chemical engineering::Food technology
A low adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and poor nutritional status (NS) have been associated with impaired cognitive function (CF) in non-institutionalized elderly. Objectives: Investigate the relationship between CF and adherence to the MD and NS in institutionalized the elderly in Bragança – Portugal. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in institutionalized the elderly who evaluated CF through the Mini Mental State Examination in two categories: with and without cognitive defect, adherence to MD through an indirect PREDIMED questionnaire in two categories: good and low adherence, protein NS through the measurement of the adductor pollicis muscle thickness (APMT) and energy NS through tricipital skinfold thickness (TST), both in two categories: eutrophic and malnutrition. The relationship between variables was studied through the chi-square test and odds ratio (OR) and confidence intervals (95%CI) were computed from adjusted logistic regression. Results: 208 institutionalized elderly, mostly women (64.9%), were evaluated and a direct relationship was found between CF without defect with good adherence MD (p<0.001) and with eutrophic APMT (p=0.016), but not with TST (p=0.611). The elderly with a good adherence to MD were more likely to have no cognitive defect (OR=6.48, 95%CI:2.09-20.11, p=0.001), but there was no relation to APMT (p=0.678). Conclusions: This data suggests that good adherence to the MD can have a beneficial effect on CF in institutionalized elderly, however the NS apparently was associated with CF. The elderly population, specially who is institutionalized, can benefit from the promotion of healthy eating habits.
