Introduction: Most elderly people suffer from various chronic medical diseases whose can be evaluated by anthropometric parameters, but these parameters are not sufficiently used by healthcare givers during clinical evaluation. This study is aimed at determining the anthropometric parameters and the pattern of morbidities among elderly patients in the General Out-Patient Clinic in the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among 307 elderly participants. They were assessed using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and the anthropometric parameters (BMI, MUAC, and Calf Circumference) measured following standard guidelines. The data analysis was done using Version 21 of the Statistical Products and Service Solutions (SPSS-21). Chi-square was used to test associations and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: About a quarter of the elderly (26.7%) were overweight while 12.4% were obese. Close to one third of the respondents (29.3%) had low calf circumference, while 3.9% among the respondents had low MUAC. The most prevalent disease among the respondents was hypertension (53.0%), followed by diabetes (13.3%) and osteoarthritis (10.3%). Majority of the respondents (78.2%) were taking multiple medications while 39.1% of the respondents reported history of multi-morbidity. BMI showed a statistically significant relationship with hypertension, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and psychological problems, age, sex, MUAC and CC.
Conclusion: Anthropometric measurements are important tools to assess the clinical status of the elderlies during their routine visit for care.
