The relationship between nutritional status, functional capacity, and health-related quality of life in older adults with type 2 diabetes: A pilot explanatory study

To explore the relationship between nutritional status, functional capacity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Cross-sectional study. Forty two non-insulin dependent older adults from a primary care center in Seville, Spain. Function was assessed with a battery of standardized physical fitness tests. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and the European Quality of Life Questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L) was used to assess HRQoL. There was an association between MNA-nutritional status and lower body strength as assessed by the chair sit-stand test (rho=.451; p=.037) and between MNA-nutritional status and EQ-5D-3L-HRQoL (EQ-5D-3Lutility, rho=.553; p <.001 and EQ-5D-3LVAS rho=.402; p <.001). An MNA item by item correlation analysis with HRQoL and lower limb strength demonstrated that HRQoL appears to be related to functional capacity (principally lower body strength, motor agility and cardiorespiratory fitness) among participants. These results were maintained when correlations were adjusted for co-morbidity. Our results demonstrated that nutritional status is moderately associated with HRQoL and lower limb strength in patients with T2DM. Our data suggest that more emphasis should be placed on interventions to encourage a correct diet and stress the needed to improve lower body strength to reinforce better mobility in T2DM population.