Association between thyroid function profiles and malnutrition severity in elderly patients

Aim To explore the of triiodothyronine (rT3) in the prognostic model of malnutrition in the elderly. Methods A total of 166 elderly patients with malnutrition were included in the experimental group, and 98 healthy people were collected as the control group. The six thyroid function items of the two groups of subjects were compared: TT3, TT4, FT3, FT4, TSH, and rT3 levels; logistic regression experiment was used to analyze the related factors affecting the prognosis of elderly patients with malnutrition; ROC analysis was used to analyze the predictive value of related variables for prognosis. Results Compared with the control group, the experimental group had higher age and lower TT3, TT4, FT3, FT4, and rT3 ( P < 0.05); the difference was statistically significant in the comparison of age, BMI, TT3, TT4, FT3, TSH, and rT3 in mild, moderate, and severe malnutrition patients ( P < 0.05). TT3, TT4, FT3, FT4, TSH and rT3 were all independent factors affecting the prognosis of malnutrition ( P < 0.05); TT3, TT4, FT3, FT4, TSH, and rT3 have good predictive value for the prognosis of malnutrition, with AUC scores of 0.976, 0.860, 0.962, 0.763, 0.928, and 0.958, respectively, and sensitivities of 89.47%, 97.47%, 100.00%, 73.68%, 100.00%, and 94.74%, respectively, and specificities of 100.00%, 74.24%, 95.45%, 81.82%, 87.88%, and 100.00%, respectively, ( P < 0.05). Conclusion TT3, TT4, FT3, FT4, and rT3 have certain predictive value for the prognosis of malnutrition in the elderly and can be used as clinical evaluation indicators.