Objective:

elderly fragile people are a group at risk for malnutrition. Because of this, the study aimed to describe the nutritional status of an assisted residence of 136 beds and analyze the relationship between malnutrition and other variables.

Methods:

descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study on a sample of 113 people. Variables collected were body composition of resident, nutritional and cognitive impairment, type of malnutrition and feeding (type of diet, nutritional therapy, dysphagia, anorexia, and eating dependence). Comparison of means using the Student T test and compared proportions using Chi-square of Pearson were made.

Results:

The risk of malnutrition found was 31% (n = 35), of them, 22% (n = 25) of total residents were classified as Gasull malnutrition. 92% (104) of the participants of the study showed some symptoms or disease and only 18 (15.9%) were not suffering from cognitive impairment. The 65.5% (74) was at basal/diabetic diet and the 35.4% (48) needed help to eat. Moderate-high cognitive impairment and therapeutic diets showed a positive correlation with malnutrition according to Gasull cases.

Conclusion:

Nutritional state of the residence may be related with greater resident complexity (high percentage of them with moderate and severe cognitive impairment and/or other illnesses) and with the quality of assistance. The lack of association of malnutrition with the rest of the variables analyzed, leads us to support the hypothesis that multiple factors interfere in the nutritional status of elder adults.

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