In this group of elderly African-American hospitalized patients, resting energy expenditure was significantly greater than Harris-Benedict equation predictions. If the Harris-Benedict predictions were applied to caloric delivery, weight loss as a result of underfeeding might be expected. The reasons for this difference may be myriad, but consideration should be given to issues of age, metabolic [...]
Demographics
A total of 61 patients, of which 66% were female, were included in the study. The primary reason for admission covered a full range of medical conditions (Table 1). Only 3/21 men and 2/40 women were receiving mechanical ventilation during their RMR measurement.
METHODS
All African-American patients 65 years or older, who were admitted to the Skilled Nursing Facility or general medical floors of the University of Pennsylvania Health System/Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA during 1998, were potential candidates for study. Of those patients referred for nutritional consultation or for management of enteral or parenteral feedings, a subset [...]
INTRODUCTION
The ill elderly often present with elevated nutritional risk and a history of weight loss. Elderly patients who lose weight during hospital admissions have an eight-fold greater in-hospital and nearly three-fold greater 90-day mortality, when compared to patients without significant weight loss.
Limitations
The cross-sectional design and modest sample size associated with the current study may present as a limitation to the generalizability of the current findings. Although we recognize that the lack of underweight patients in the current study may distinguish this sample from other clinics around the country, we believe, however, that the current study is [...]
In the current study, we found that almost one-half of adult patients (average age of 37 years) with SCD can be categorized as overweight, and >20% can be categorized as obese. To our knowledge, this is the first study to document a trend towards overweight and obesity in a mature sample of patients with SCD. [...]
Mean BMI (weight in kg/height in m2) for the sample was 25.93 ± 6.84, with no significant differences observed between men and women. Underweight (n=4; BMI <19), normal (n=27; BMI=19-24.9), overweight (n=17; BMI=25-29.9) and obese (n=14; BMI >30) patients did not differ in age or education. Income across the past year did not influence BMI [...]
