Malnourishment or at Risk of Malnutrition in the Elderly and the Helping Relationship Competencies of the Family Health Team: A Cross-Sectional Mixed Design Study

Objective: To provide the first association between elderly malnutrition or at-risk and the helping relationship competencies of their Family Health Team (FHT). Methods: A cross-sectional mixed design was conducted with 371 community elderly through the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA), and a second to the elder's FHT using the Inventory of Helping Relationship Competencies (ICRA). Multivariate analyses were performed for quantitative data. Qualitative sources were analyzed by content analysis. Results: A combined prevalence of 29.2% malnourished or at-risk at Primary Health Care (PHC) was observed, with differences between gender (p=.048), age (p<.001), marital status (p=.023), educational level (p=.020), and diabetes (p=.007). Logistic regression demonstrated that age (OR=1.07), cohabitation (OR=0.372), diabetes (OR=2.85), and FHT's empathic competencies (OR=0.869) were the strongest determinants of malnutrition or at-risk. Conclusion: The participants confirmed the lack of nutritional assessment training. Although, malnutrition is underdiagnosed at PHC, the FHT's empathic skill in reducing the phenomenon is highlighted.