ECE2023 Eposter Presentations Diabetes, Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition (355 abstracts)
1Institut Salah Azaiez, Tunisia; 2Institut de Nutrition, Service C, Tunisia; 3Institut de Nutrition, Service A, Tunisia
Introduction: Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) results from an imbalance between the intake and the needs of the body, which is still noted in developing countries. The aim of this work was to describe the trend of prevalence and mortality rate during the period 2010- 2019 in people aged over 55 years in Tunisia.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study. The data source was the Washington Institute of Health Metrics for Tunisia. We performed a direct standardization of prevalence and mortality rates and analyzed their Trend over 9 years using JointPoint software.
Results: During 2010-2019, the prevalence of malnutrition increased by 9%; the annual average percentage of change (AAPC) was of +1% (95% CI [0.8%-1.2%] for both genders; (P<103). In the masculine gender the APC was only significant during the period 2017-2019 with a percentage of 4.3% (95% CI [3.1%-5.4%]); P<0.001. In contrast, for the female sex we noted a significant APC during the 2 periods 2010-2017 and 2017-2019 respectively of 0.4% (95% CI [0.3%-0.5%] and 3.1% (95% CI [2.3%-4%]) (P=0.001). The mortality rate showed a clear decrease of -18% with a AAPC of -1.8 (95% CI [2.3%-1.4%] significant for both genders (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Even if the ECD mortality rate in Tunisia has decreased during the last decade owing to early diagnosis, the prevalence still notes a significant increase. This underlines the importance of an adequate nutritional management.