Association between malnutrition diagnosed by GLIM criteria and one‐year mortality in hospitalized elderly patients: A prospective observational study

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is a major geriatric syndrome frequently observed in hospitalized elderly patients, leading to adverse clinical outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of malnutrition using the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria in hospitalized patients and to assess the predictive value of these criteria on one-year mortality. METHODS: This cross-sectional and prospective study was conducted at Health Sciences University Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital-a tertiary center-between July 2019 and December 2019. Patients aged ≥65 years who were admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine (General Internal Medicine) were included in the study. Patients identified as malnourished or at risk according to the NRS-2002 were further evaluated with the GLIM criteria (requiring at least one phenotypic and one etiologic criterion). RESULTS: A total of 200 patients were enrolled, of whom 101 (50.5%) were female, with a mean age of 74.72 ± 9.39 years. According to the NRS-2002, 81% of patients were at risk for malnutrition, while the prevalence of malnutrition based on the GLIM criteria was 73.5% (49% classified as moderate malnutrition and 24.5% as severe malnutrition). Patients with moderate malnutrition, defined by the GLIM criteria, had a 2.2-fold increased risk of one-year mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.2, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28-3.89, P = 0.005), while those with severe malnutrition had a 2.5-fold increased risk (HR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.34-4.5, P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained in the present study demonstrated that the presence of moderate-to-severe malnutrition determined by the GLIM criteria in a two-step process is associated with an increased one-year mortality rate among hospitalized elderly patients.