Health-related quality of life in nonagenarians: gender, functional status and nutritional risk as associated factors

Background and objectives: The group of age showing a faster growth is the most elderly people. The objective of this study is to describe the health related quality of life in elderly subjects older than 89 year and to identify related factors. Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was done at the third year of a longitudinal study (NonaSantfeliu). We evaluated all survived patients who scored > 19 in the Spanish version of the Mental State Examination (MEC). Sociodemographic data were collected, functional status was determined by Lawton-Brody and Barthel Index (BI) and cognition with MEC. Charlson score was used to measure comorbidity and the nutritional risk was evaluated by the short version of Mini Nutritional Assessment questionnaire (short-MNA). Eurogol-5D (EQ-5D) was used to assess health related quality of life. Results: The final sample was composed by 37 subjects, 25 women (68%) and 12 men, with a mean age of 94.32 (2.9) years. The mean score in EQ-5D was 0,51 (0,2) and the mean visual analogue self-rating scale (EQ-VAS) was 63 (2,9). Three variables: female gender (p = 0,011; regression Beta coefficient :18,99; IC 95%; 4,66-33,33, poor BI score (p = 0.010; regression Beta coefficient 0.38; IC 95%; 0.09-0.67) and high nutritional risk in short-MNA (p = 0.001; regression Beta coefficient: 3.95; IC 95%: 2.50-5.41) were associated with quality of life in the multivariate analyses. Conclusion: A good health quality of life in the oldest old people was observed in this study. Gender, functional status and nutritional risk were associated with quality of life in nonagenarians. (C) 2009 Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.