Nutritional status is associated with the return home in a long‐term care health facility

Background The purpose of this study was to determine the association between nutritional status and the return home of older people living in a long-term care health facility (LCHF). Methods A nested case control study was performed in 116 people ≥65 years of age in a single LCHF. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) and activities of daily living by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The return home, duration of rehabilitation, and the family wanting the patient to return home were obtained from clinical records. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess whether malnutrition had independent effects on the return home. Results The participants included 36 males and 80 females with a mean age of 82 years. Thirty-seven people returned home while 79 did not. The MNA-SF showed that 80 subjects were malnourished. Sixty-six of the participants received rehabilitation for longer than 1 hour per week, while 50 received rehabilitation for <1 hour. The proportion of subjects with malnutrition who returned home was significantly lower (P = .003) than in participants who did not return home. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that malnutrition (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.08-0.65; P = .006), total FIM score (AOR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P = .012), and the family wanting the patient to return home (AOR, 9.46; 95% CI, 3.19-28.12; P < .001) were independently associated with the return home. Conclusions Nutritional status is associated with the return home in older people living in LCHF.