Prevalence of Hypomagnesemia among Elderly Patients attending a Tertiary Care Center: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study
Introduction: Magnesium deficiency is common in the elderly and critically ill population and hasbeen associated with a prolonged ICU stay. The knowledge of hypomagnesemia is essential as itcould have prognostic and therapeutic implications in the elderly population. This study aimed toestimate the prevalence of hypomagnesemic in the elderly population visiting a tertiary care center. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital fromMarch 21, 2020 to September 21, 2020. After obtaining ethical clearance from the institutional reviewcommittee (Ref. 2003202008), convenience sampling was done. Data were collected and entered inMicrosoft Excel version 2007. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along withfrequency and proportion for binary data. Results: Out of 384 participants, 174 (45%) participants were found to have deranged magnesiumlevels, in which 111 (29%) (31.3-26.7 at 95% Confidence Interval) were found to be hypomagnesemia.Among them, 62 (29.4%) males and 49 (28.5%) females were hypomagnesemia. The average level ofserum magnesium was 2.02±0.76 mg/dl ranging from 0.03 to 4.71. The mean age of participants was70.31±8.13 years, among which the participants between the age group of 71-80 years presented witha maximum percentage of hypomagnesemia. Conclusions: The present study has shown that an apparently-healthy elderly population mayhave a magnesium deficiency that may need to be identified and treated for optimizing clinicalcare. Further multicentric studies with a greater sample size should be done in this field, which willbenefit the elderly population.