Title:Nutrition as a Health Determinant in Elderly Patients
VOLUME: 24
Author(s):Tecla Mastronuzzi and Ignazio Grattagliano*
Affiliation:Italian College of General Practitioners Bari, Italian College of General Practitioners Bari
Keywords:Elderly, Malnutrition, Mini nutritional assessment, nutritional
intervention.
Abstract:An adequate caloric intake is a major determinant for the health
status especially when degenerative conditions become a predominant risk for
difficult-to-treat diseases as in aging. The maintenance of the nutritional
status is the best measure to counteract the risk of protein-caloric
malnutrition and its complications which often sneakily affects elderly
population and in particular frail patients. Both organic and social risk
factors [economic hardship, loneliness, institutionalization] are important
as determining causes. Some anthropometric, clinical and laboratory
parameters can help to make diagnosis and quantify malnutrition. However,
most of them are not cheap or are not simple to perform especially in the
setting of General Practice. The application of a simple questionnaire [Mini
Nutritional Assessment, MNA] allows to obtain in a fast, easy and
non-invasive way a valid assessment of the nutritional status in geriatric
patients. This review, based on updated concepts, examines all the above
mentioned points together with some aspects associated with malnutrition as
an indicator of disease severity and health costs in the elderly population.
Finally, the impact of nutritional intervention and nutrients
supplementation on general indices of malnutrition has been discussed as a
promising strategy.
