journal articles
UNDERNUTRITION AND RISK OF MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS IN THE ELDERLY
R. Billon, J.-L. Fanon, P. Thomas
J Aging Res Clin Practice 2014;3(1):3-6
Objectives: To appraise the risk of having a multi resistant bacteria infection attributable to poor nutritional status in the elderly. Design: Using a statement from a case-control study in an acute geriatric medical service, knowing the overall risk of infection in the studied population, it is possible from the likelihood ratio, frequency of malnourished infected by MRB, divided by frequency in malnourished infected with sensitive organisms, to calculate a probability which is a post-test assessment of this risk. Two groups of patients had a documented infection, one with both an albumin less than 25g and pre albumin levels less than 0.15g and another where values were greater than or equal to 35g and 0.15g. Setting: The geriatrics short care unit in Fort de France, Martinique, France. Participants: Patients over 75 years, hospitalized in the short care unit and who had an acute infection with a positive sample (urine, blood .. ) Measurements: The frequency of malnourished patients is increased when infected with multi-resistant Bacteria, as shown with post test probability calculation. Results: In a population averaging 85 years old, the malnourished group had almost a double risk of infection , 26.92% ( 95% CI : 22.73-30.38 ) against 13.95% ( 95% CI : 7.01-25.85) in the other group. The fraction attributable to undernutrition was 48%. Conclusion: Nearly half of the resistance can be attributed to malnutrition with a fraction attributable to exposure to 48%. It's still possible that other factors not taken into account in this presentation partly explain this difference. The case-control statement type can also be biased and finally we relied only on the rate of albumin and pre-albumin to classify patients. But it is still unlikely that the observed result is due to chance.
CITATION:
R. Billon ; J.-L. Fanon ; P. Thomas (2014): UNDERNUTRITION AND RISK OF MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS IN THE ELDERLY . The Journal of Aging Research and Clinical Practice (JARCP). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jarcp.2014.1