Lack of body weight measurement is associated with mortality and hospitalization in community-dwelling frail elderly.
OBJECTIVE
Although it is not uncommon for there to be frail older people living in the community, who do not know their weight and/or height, the health-related outcomes of those older remains unknown. We examined whether missing these anthropometries are a predictor of mortality or hospitalization during a 2-year follow-up period in community-dwelling older people using various community-based services.


METHODS
This study was a prospective cohort analysis of 952 community-dwelling elderly. Data included the clients' demographic characteristics, basic activities of daily living (ADL), comorbidity, and anthropometric measurements at baseline. Analysis of mortality and hospitalization over the 2-year period was conducted using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models.


RESULTS
Among the 952 participants, 342 and 292 had missing data for height and weight at baseline, respectively. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for potential confounders showed that the lack of data on weight was associated with 2-year mortality (hazard ratio, HR:1.54, 96% CI:1.09-1.79) as well as hospitalization (HR:1.34, 95% CI:1.01-1.79) during the 2-year follow-up, although the lack of height measurement was not associated with these adverse outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
Older people living in the community with unavailable weight data appear to be more likely to have a high risk of mortality and hospitalization.
Izawa
Sachiko
S
Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan.
Enoki
Hiromi
H
Hirakawa
Yoshihisa
Y
Masuda
Yuichiro
Y
Iwata
Mitsunaga
M
Hasegawa
Jun
J
Iguchi
Akihisa
A
Kuzuya
Masafumi
M
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors