Relationship of nutritional status and functional capacity in elderly patients visiting outpatient clinics of a tertiary care hospital

Objective: To determine the correlation of functional and nutritional status of elderly patients (equal to and more than 60 years of age) visiting family medicine clinics of tertiary care hospital in Karachi. Study Design: Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Family medicine clinics of Aga Khan University Hospital, in Karachi, from August 2014 to February 2015. Methodology: A total of 200 participants (60 years and above), Family medicine outpatient clinics, were recruited via nonprobability consecutive sampling. Katz scoring and MNA scale were used for the evaluation of functional and nutritional status, respectively. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was applied to assess the correlation between nutritional status and functional status of elderly. Results: Out of 200 participants, 35 % (n=70) were of 60-64 years of age. Most of them (54%, n=109) were males as compared to 46% (n=91) females; 33.5% were at risk of malnutrition and 35.5% were dependent. Spearmen correlation between functional and nutritional status was rho = -0.675, with p-value of p < 0.001. Conclusion: There is a negative correlation between nutritional and functional status. As good nutritional status is essential for older persons to become functionally active; hence, this issue needs to be dealt in a developing country like Pakistan.