Prevalence of malnutrition and associated metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease in older adults from Northwest Mexico

This cross-sectional study assessed the prevalence of malnutrition and several metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease in 287 apparently healthy older adults from Northwest Mexico. Also, the impact of overweight and obesity on metabolic risk factors was assessed. Nutritional status was determined using serum albumin levels and anthropometry. Vitamin status was also assessed. Metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease were evaluated. The prevalence of undernutrition was 15.3%. Also, vitamin E deficiency was common (18%). On the contrary, 44.9% of men and women were in overweight and 24% were obese. A 50.9% of the older adults had hypertension, 52.6% hypercholesterolemia (HC), 38.3% hypertriglyceridemia (HTG), 26.1% impaired fasting glucose and 26.1% impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). HC and low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) were significantly more prevalent in women than in men. Mean adjusted values of fasting glucose, high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C ratio ≥5, triglycerides (TG) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were significantly higher in subjects with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25.0 kg/m². Undernutrition, obesity and vitamin E deficiency, as well as several metabolic risk factors for cardiovascular disease coexisted in this studied group. Overweight and obesity were the most prevalent findings. BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² was the common factor explaining most of the metabolic abnormalities. However, due to the sample size and the design of the study, the results must be seen with caution and cannot be generalized.