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Predictors of two-year mortality in older nursing home residents. The IRA study

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Abstract

Besides functional impairment, several factors have been associated with mortality in institutionalized older subjects, including advanced age, gender, comorbidity, and malnutrition. We investigated the possible association of a large number of factors, including functional, anthropometric, nutritional, metabolic, clinical, and demographic variables, with two-year all-cause mortality inasample of 344 institutionalized older subjects (65 years) without evidence of acute illness at the time of observation. Although a number of factors were associated with mortality risk, multivariate analysis showed that only severe disability (6 vs 0–1 lost ADL, O.R.: 3.37, C.I. 95%: 1.76–7.3) and low albumin levels (lowest vs highest tertile: O.R.: 3.0, C.I. 95%: 1.65–5.43) were independent predictors of outcome. Moreover, in the analysis stratified for degree of disability and albumin tertiles, we found a strong gradient in mortality risk with increasing disability and decreasing albumin levels. These results further support the value of these two simple parameters in identifying frail institutionalized older individuals.

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Zuliani, G., Romagnoni, F., Soattin, L. et al. Predictors of two-year mortality in older nursing home residents. The IRA study. Aging Clin Exp Res 13, 3–7 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03351486

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