Objective: The objective of this work is to evaluate the association between Selenium (Se)-, Copper (Cu)- and Zinc (Zn)-circulating concentrations and indicators of nutritional status.
Subjects/methods: This study enroled 428 institutionalised elderly. The diagnostic tools used are a form to collect data regarding gender, age, duration of stay in nursing home, number of prescribed drugs, chronic diseases, Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), anthropometric measurements, albumin, transferrin and serum concentrations of Se, Cu and Zn. The collected data were analysed with descriptive assessments of the differences χ(2), Student's t-test and analysis of variance. Multivariate linear regression were performed to evaluate the association between the concentrations of each trace elements and the other variables.
Results: The study population was represented by 327 women and 101 men, of whom 13.8% were 65-75 years old and 47.4% were older than 85 years. According to the MNA score, 58.4% were at risk of malnutrition and 21.3% were malnourished. The results show a significant reduction in the average concentrations of Se and Zn in women when the nutritional status gets worse. The same trend, although not statistically significant, is also observed in men. In both genders, the Cu concentration does not show a statistically significant association with nutritional status. Multivariate linear regression show some positive or negative associations.
Conclusions: Our study seems to confirm the association between Se and nutritional status, as well as with some blood chemistry parameters. The length of institutionalisation seems to be an independent predictor of Se concentration.