{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T09:53:47Z","timestamp":1791194027529,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791158400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The global population is experiencing an unprecedented demographic shift, with a growing proportion of older adults, particularly in developing nations such as India. Nutritional deficiencies, comorbidities, and poor quality of life (QoL) are interlinked health issues that significantly affect the wellbeing of the older adult(s), a vulnerable group, especially those residing in rural areas.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To assess the nutritional status, quality of life, and comorbidities among the older population residing in the rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India and to explore associations among these factors.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among 380 rural older adult(s) aged 60 years and above residing in the rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Data were collected using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), and Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire (SCQ). Compiled data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Descriptive data were interpreted in mean (\u00b1 SD), frequencies, and percentages. Association was tested using the chi-square test, ANOVA, and multivariate logistic regression. Statistical significance was established at\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A total of 380 older adult(s) participants were enrolled (mean age: 71.23 \u00b1 7.60 years, males: 65.8%). Around 4.2% (16) were malnourished, and 69.7% (265) were at risk of malnutrition. The WHOQOL-BREF scores revealed the highest QoL in the environmental domain (27 \u00b1 5) and the lowest in the social relationship domain (8 \u00b1 2). Using the SCQ tool, osteoarthritis (64.7%), hypertension (32.6%), and diabetes (24.2%) were the most common comorbidities, and 82.6% suffered from at least one comorbidity. Increasing age, female sex, and financial dependency were significantly associated with poor nutritional status and lower QoL (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05). Malnutrition was significantly associated with lower physical, psychological, and total QoL scores (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.05).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Malnutrition, comorbidities, and poor QoL are interrelated challenges among the older population. Early identification and integrated interventions focusing on nutrition, chronic disease management, and social support are vital for healthy aging.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1851457","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T09:13:28Z","timestamp":1791191608000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Assessment of nutrition, quality of life, and co-morbidity among the older adult(s), in a rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital of Eastern India"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Rosy","family":"Nayak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences","place":["Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Smrutiranjan","family":"Nayak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences","place":["Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Prem Sagar","family":"Panda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences","place":["Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ipsita","family":"Debata","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences","place":["Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Subhadra","family":"Priyadarshini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences","place":["Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"Geneva\n          WHO\n          World Report on Ageing and Health\n          \n          2015"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100209","DOI":"10.1016\/j.dialog.2025.100209","article-title":"Understanding the dynamics of malnutrition dichotomy in India: trends and insights from the national family health surveys","volume":"6","author":"Jindal","year":"2025","journal-title":"Dialogues Health."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"891","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijnurstu.2006.03.015","article-title":"Critique on the conceptualisation of quality of life: a review and evaluation of different conceptual approaches","volume":"43","author":"Moons","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int J Nurs Stud."},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.puhip.2025.100583","article-title":"Global prevalence of malnutrition in older adults: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"9","author":"Salari","year":"2025","journal-title":"Public Health Pract."},{"key":"B5","unstructured":"Geneva\n          WHO\n          Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE): Guidelines on Community-Level Interventions to Manage Declines in Intrinsic Capacity\n          \n          2017"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"287","DOI":"10.2147\/CIA.S41941","article-title":"Assessing the nutritional status of elderly Chinese lung cancer patients using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA\u00ae) tool","volume":"8","author":"Zhang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Clin Interv Aging."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.3390\/geriatrics5040085","article-title":"Multi-morbidity and polypharmacy in older people: challenges and opportunities for clinical practice","volume":"5","author":"Aggarwal","year":"2020","journal-title":"Geriatrics."},{"key":"B8","unstructured":"Odisha Prepares to Build Geriatric Caregiver Pool amid Rising Elderly Population by 2031 the the Number of Elderly People in the State Is Expected to Rise to 15.8%, Ranking Odisha Sixth among States in the Country for Having a High Percentage of Senior People Published - October 08, 2024 12:13 Am IST - BHUBANESWAR)"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6621278","DOI":"10.1155\/2021\/6621278","article-title":"Quality of life and nutritional status of the geriatric population of the south-central part of Nepal","volume":"2021","author":"Sharma","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Nutr Metab."},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"643","DOI":"10.1007\/s12098-024-05131-z","article-title":"Updated B. 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