Assessment of agreement between different methods for identifying dehydration status in hospitalized older patients
Main Article Content
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 451 inpatients aged ≥ 60 years old at Hanoi Medical University Hospital to determine the prevalence of dehydration and to assess the agreement between different methods for identifying dehydration status. Collected variablesincluded anthropometric characteristics, nutritional status (MNA), daily fluid intake, GULP score, plasma osmolality, blood urea nitrogen/creatinine (BUN/Cre) ratio, and total body water (%TBW). The results showed that the prevalence of dehydration risk according to the GULP score was very high (95.57%). The prevalence of dehydration varied depending on the assessment method, 34.6% were determined by plasma osmolality, 41.7% by BUN/Cre ratio, and 48.8% by %TBW. The level of agreement between these methods was limited, with low Kappa coefficients and Spearman analysis indicated generally weak correlations between the indicators. These findings indicate that no single method is sufficient to comprehensively assess dehydration status in older adults. Therefore, a combination of clinical, biochemical, and body composition assessments is recommended to improve diagnostic accuracy and support timely intervention.
Article Details
Keywords
Dehydration, Older patients, Plasma osmolality, BUN/creatinine ratio, Total body water
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