Body image, nutritional status and quality of life in long-lived older adults

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the body image and nutritional status (NS) of older adults aged 80 and over and its relation with quality of life (QoL). Method: A cross-sectional, quantitative study, with no intervention, using non-probabilistic sampling, was conducted from October 2016 to September 2017 with 103 older individuals aged ≥80 years old from the state of São Paulo. NS was evaluated according to OPAS/SABE; body image was evaluated by the Kakeshita fifteen silhouette scale, and the WHOQoL-bref and WHOQoL-old were used to measure QoL. The Chi-square test was used to verify the association between the studied variables and sex. To compare QoL with nutritional status and body image, the ANOVA Factor test was used. The level of significance was 5% (p<0.05). Results: The majority of the interviewees were female (69.2%) and the average age was 82.75 (±2.98). When comparing the perception of QoL with NS, there was a significant difference (p=0.027) in the self-evaluation of QoL of obese older adults only. The QoL related to body image of both sexes presented a significant difference (p=0.020) in the environmental domain of the WHOQoL-bref in the evaluation of body satisfaction. Conclusion: The body image distortion identified by these older adults did not interfere with their perception of QoL. However, when NS was considered, overweight older adults had a higher perception of QoL.