(P18-036-24) Association of Malnutrition Risk Screening Variables With Survival to Centenarian Status in the Geisinger Rural Aging Study Cohort

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the associations between malnutrition risk screening variables and survival to centenarian status using data from the Geisinger Rural Aging Study (GRAS).

Methods: The GRAS cohort was initiated in central Pennsylvania in1994 to relate health outcomes to nutrition risk status. There were 21,645 individuals ≥65 years (mean age 71) enrolled over a 5-year period that completed a baseline questionnaire adapted from the Nutrition Screening Initiative. The current sub-study was limited to those born in or before 1923 and age < 95 years at baseline recruitment (n=5374). These subjects were followed over more than two decades to determine centenarian status (n=159 centenarians and n=5215 non-centenarians). A case control design was implemented including matching centenarians with non-centenarians by age and sex (1 case/ 6 controls). Conditional logistic regression was used to identify variables that were independently associated with centenarian status while adjusting for baseline age. Odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI), and p value are presented.

Results: The matching resulted in 153 eligible centenarians (mean age 81.6, female 81.7%) with 918 matched controls (mean age 81.2, female 81.7%). Significant negative associations were found for reporting any limitation in activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living, reference: 0 (1-2 limitations: OR=1.96, CI:1.05-3.65, p=0.034, 3+ limitations: OR=3.45, CI:1.18-10.10, p=0.024); polypharmacy, reference: 0 (3+ medications: OR=2.62, CI:1.79-3.82, p < 0.0001), and obesity (≥30 kg/m²), reference: BMI 25-29.9 (OR=1.90, CI:1.14-3.19, p=0.015). Similar BMI results were obtained using desirable (18.5-24.9), overweight (25-29.9), or both categories combined as the reference. Low BMI ( < 18.5) did not achieve significance (OR 3.54, CI 0.79-15.78, p=0.097).

Conclusions: These significant independent risk factors for not achieving centenarian status are known to have positive associations with mortality. These are also risk factors that are often associated with malnutrition that may be amenable to targeted case management.

Funding Sources: Funded by the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture