Assessment hydration status of demented elders in caring hospitals

초록

Purpose: This study was to investigate the hydration status of demented elders in caring hospitals, and identify their relationship to laboratory results which would provide useful information in terms of factors that would need to be considered for accurate measurement of demented elders' hydration status. Methods: This was a retrospective study, where medical records were examined for 90 demented elderly patients in 8 caring hospital of Incheon. The fluid adequate intake (including oral intake and total parenteral fluid), and laboratory test results (markers of hydration status) that was carried out on same day were investigated. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18.0 using descriptive statistics. Results: In terms of fluid adequate intake, 6 patients (6.7%) were less than 1000ml, 71 patients (78.9%) were more than 1000ml but less than 2100ml, and 13 patients (14.4%) were normal with more than 2100ml. When the fluid adequate intake and the USG was compared, the result indicating true positive ratio, where both results were normal was 11.11% (10 patients), and the true negative ratio, where both results were abnormal was 22.22% (20 patients). When the fluid adequate intake and the BUN:Creatinin was compared, the result indicating true positive ratio was 11.11% (10 patients), and the true negative ratio was 41.11% (37 patients). When the fluid adequate intake and the hematocrit was compared, the true positive ratio was 3.33% (3 patients) and true negative ratio was 44.44% (40 patients). Conclusion: There were more than 40% of cases where the fluid adequate intakes were shown to be abnormal despite the normal laboratory finding. Hence the assessment of hydration solely on fluid adequate intake may result in over hydration. In this light of these results, the assessment of hydration status in demented elders should consider both fluid adequate intake as well as the laboratory test results.