en public specific orginal article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span calibri="" style="font-family:"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Background: </span></span></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Following the improvement in health status and life expectancy in developing countries, the elderly population is increasing. Elderly malnutrition</span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> is common across healthcare services and is associated with high costs and adverse outcomes. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">This study assesses the prevalence of malnutrition among elderly patients in the selected hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. <b>Methods: </b>This cross-sectional study was conducted on elderly patients aged 65 years or older in 6 selected hospitals between June and September 2015. Using convenience sampling method, a total of 451 patients were included. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) tool. <b>Results: </b>The mean age of the patients was 71.49 &plusmn; 6.60 year and 55.5% were female. The prevalence of malnutrition was 27.3%. A total of 30.8% were at risk of malnutrition, and 41.9% had a normal nutritional status. There were significant associations between nutritional status and chronic diseases, body mass index (BMI), mobility, psychological condition, mid-arm circumference (MAC), calf circumference, and more than three prescription drugs per day (<i>P</i> < 0.001). <b>Conclusion: </b>A satisfactory nutritional status was found among most hospitalized elderly. Future studies with follow-up during and after hospitalization are required.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> Prevalence, Elderly, Malnutrition, Hospital 77 82 http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-438-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Seyedeh Fatemeh Mirbazegh 0000-0001-9572-1895 No Nursing Affair Directorship, Vice Chancellorship for Clinical Administration, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Shima Hadavi hadavi.nutrition@gmail.com 0000-0001-7018-7438 Yes Treatment Department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Sadaf Alipour 0000-0002-7451-4077 No Breast Disease Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Nasrin Abbasi 0000-0002-6075-992X No Treatment Deputy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Khorshid Vaskooi-Eshkevari 0000-0002-5084-6384 No Office of Women Affair, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mojtaba Soltani-Kermanshahi 0000-0003-0920-8855 No Social Determinants of Health Research Center, School of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran Soraiya Ebrahimpour-Koujan 0000-0002-9613-3670 No School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mehdi Sadeghian 0000-0001-8842-0904 No School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.