Diseases and chronic health conditions, multimorbidity and body mass index in older adults

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the association between diseases and chronic health conditions, multimorbidity and body mass index (BMI) in older adults from southern Brazil. Epidemiological cross-sectional study, with household basis was carried out with 343 older adults aged 60-79 years, selected by probability sampling and all aged 80 years or older (n=134). Hypertension, diabetes, cancer, chronic pulmonary diseases, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, depression, history of falls and dependency in activities of the daily living were assessed by self-report. Associations between independent variables and BMI (outcome) were tested using simple and multiple linear regression. Participated in the study 270 women (73.2±8.8 years) and 207 men (73.3±9.0 years). After adjustment (age, education, living arrangement, smoking, alcohol consumption, waist circumference, cognitive status and all other disease and chronic health conditions), the associations identified were: hypertension with higher BMI values (? 3.43; 95%CI: 2.38 to 4.48), for women, and chronic pulmonary disease with lower BMI values (? -2.05; 95%CI: -3.50 to -0.60). There was a linear trend between number of diseases and BMI for both sexes. Conclusion: The results showed an independent association between specific chronic diseases and BMI. Monitoring of nutritional status in older adults is important to identify extreme BMI values, especially those with more than two diseases and chronic health conditions.