Self-care ability and sense of coherence in older nutritional at-risk patients

Objective: To investigate self-care ability and sense of coherence in geriatric rehabilitation patients nutritionally screened using the Nutritional Form For the Elderly and to relate the patients' perceived health to self-care ability and sense of coherence. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: A geriatric rehabilitation ward in a hospital in western Sweden. Subjects: A sample of 172 consecutively recruited patients (65+ years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. One hundred forty-four patients were included in the study because 16 patients refused to take part and 12 could not complete the entire data collection procedure. Methods: Interviews, using one instrument for nutritional screening and other instruments measuring self-care ability and sense of coherence and one question about perceived health, were performed. Results: Patients at medium or high risk for undernutrition had lower self-care ability (P