Faculty Collaboration Database

Malnutrition in free-living elderly in rural south India: prevalence and risk factors. Public Health Nutr 2010 Sep;13(9):1328-32

Date

10/08/2009

Pubmed ID

19807935

DOI

10.1017/S1368980009991674

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-77957230292 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   61 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among free-living elderly in a rural population of south India.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire, which is an eighteen-item nutritional screening instrument used in the elderly.

SETTING: Kaniyambadi block, a rural development block in the state of Tamil Nadu, south India.

SUBJECTS: Community-dwelling elderly (aged 60 years and above).

RESULTS: As evaluated by the MNA, 14 % of the 227 subjects were malnourished and 49 % were at risk of malnourishment. No significant difference was found between men and women. The majority of the elderly were living with their children, had no income and consumed three meals per day. Older age (P < 0.001), decreased food intake (P < 0.001) and consuming fewer meals (P < 0.001) were independently associated with lower MNA scores.

CONCLUSIONS: More than 60 % of the subjects had low MNA scores (<23.5) indicating that deficient protein-energy intake is common among rural elderly of south India and requires more attention.

Author List

Vedantam A, Subramanian V, Rao NV, John KR

Author

Aditya Vedantam MD Assistant Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Aging
Cross-Sectional Studies
Energy Intake
Female
Geriatric Assessment
Humans
India
Male
Malnutrition
Middle Aged
Nutrition Assessment
Nutritional Status
Prevalence
Protein-Energy Malnutrition
Risk Assessment
Risk Factors
Rural Population
Surveys and Questionnaires