title: Nutritional status in community-dwelling elderly in France in urban and rural areas.
abstract: Malnutrition is a frequent condition in elderly people, especially in nursing homes and geriatric wards. Its frequency is less well known among elderly living at home. The objective of this study was to describe the nutritional status evaluated by the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) of elderly community-dwellers living in rural and urban areas in France and to investigate its associated factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects aged 65 years and over from the Approche Multidisciplinaire Intégrée (AMI) cohort (692 subjects living in a rural area) and the Three-City (3C) cohort (8,691 subjects living in three large urban zones) were included. A proxy version of the MNA was reconstructed using available data from the AMI cohort. Sensitivity and specificity were used to evaluate the agreement between the proxy version and the standard version in AMI. The proxy MNA was computed in both cohorts to evaluate the frequency of poor nutritional status. Factors associated with this state were investigated in each cohort separately.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the rural sample, 38.0% were females and the mean age was 75.5 years. In the urban sample, 60.3% were females and the mean age was 74.1 years. Among subjects in living in the rural sample, 7.4% were in poor nutritional status while the proportion was 18.5% in the urban sample. Female gender, older age, being widowed, a low educational level, low income, low body mass index, being demented, having a depressive symptomatology, a loss of autonomy and an intake of more than 3 drugs appeared to be independently associated with poor nutritional status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poor nutritional status was commonly observed among elderly people living at home in both rural and urban areas. The associated factors should be further considered for targeting particularly vulnerable individuals.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France; INSERM, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France; Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Danone Research, Saint-Ouen, France.
authors.forename: Marion J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Danone Research, Saint-Ouen, France.
authors.forename: Béatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dorigny
authors.affiliation: Nutricia Research, Advanced Medical Nutrition, Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U1061, Neuropsychiatrie: recherche épidémiologique et clinique, Université Montpellier I, Hôpital La Colombière, F-34093, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Claudine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berr
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France; INSERM, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barberger-Gateau
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France; INSERM, ISPED, Centre INSERM U897-Epidémiologie-Biostatistique, F-33000, Bordeaux, France.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Letenneur
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires