Background: The nutritional status of older persons suffering from various medical or surgical conditions has been well reported. However, studies focusing on hematology patients are very rare.
Objective: Our aim was to obtain a photographic picture of the nutritional profile of a sample population treated for miscellaneous blood disorders, to compare our results with those obtained in other types of diseases and to isolate risk-factors for undernutrition.
Design: One hundred-twenty free living hematology patients aged over 60-year were prospectively and randomly tested the day of their admission to either our out- or inpatient clinic (department of clinical hematology from a French general hospital) using the mininutritional assessment (MNA). We compared our data with those from the literature and the role of various risk-factors was evaluated using the chi-square or the Fisher exact test.
Results: The sex ratio was 1 and the median age 74 (range: 60-97). The majority of this population suffered from malignant disorders (101 cases, 84%) and fifty-three of them received chemotherapy. Eighty individuals (66%) were tested at the outpatient unit. The mean MNA score was 22.8 (range: 7.5-30). Sixteen patients (13%) were categorized as in poor nutritional status (MNA< 17). In this subgroup, more than 3 drugs intake (p < 0.01) and recent weight loss (p = 0.015) were the most important MNA parameters predicting malnutrition (age, sex, disease type or duration being no significant risk-factors). Our MNA results compared favorably with those obtained in other medical or surgical specialties.
Conclusion: Undernutrition does not appear more prevalent in the elderly hematology population in comparison with patients suffering from other diseases. However, because nutritional status may influence the outcome, especially in case of blood neoplasms, MNA (or other more sophisticated biological tools) should be included in the evaluation of this population.