Background: Ageing is a physiological process that starts from birth, continues throughout life, and ends with death. Poor nutrition is not a natural concomitant of ageing; older adults are at risk for malnutrition due to physiological, psychological, social, dietary, and environmental risk factors.
Objectives: To assess the nutritional status of elderly living in rural India and to study the factors related to nutritional status.
Materials and Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted at Butramatti village, which comes under Primary Health Centre, Vantamuri. Predesigned and pretested questionnaire and nutritional status were assessed using Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) scale, an instrument designed by Nestle Nutrition Institute specifically for elderly people.
Results: Out of the total 190 participants, 85 (44.70%) were having BMI less than 19, 28 (14.70%) were having BMI 19 to less than 21, 11 (5.80%) were having BMI 21 to less than 23, and 66 (34.70%) were having BMI 23 or greater. And out of 190 participants, 31 (43.7%) males and 52 (43.3%) females were at risk of malnutrition. Eighteen (25.4%) males and 25 (21%) females were suffering from malnutrition and only 22 (31%) males and 42 (35.3%) females were well nourished. However, the association of gender and nutritional status of elderly was not found to be statistically significant (p = 0.735).
Conclusion: The results suggest that MNA is a useful tool in the identification of elderly at risk of malnutrition. Prevalence of elderly individuals who were malnourished and were at risk of malnutrition was high in our study.
Key words: Nutritional status, assessment, MNA, elderly, Belagavi
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