Nutritional assessment of elderly persons in Babylon

Abstract EN

Objective : to assess the risk of malnutrition among elderly people living in Babylon using the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and to study the characteristics of the instrument in this patient group.

Design : A cross-sectional study using the MNA score to assess the nutritional status of eligible elderly persons from outpatient clinic in Marjan hospital.

Subjects : A total of 155 out of 249 eligible elderly patients agreed to participate, men 76.7 % ( n = 119) and female 23.3 % (n = 36) Results : 26.5 % and 43.2 % of elderly are malnourished and at risk of malnutrition.

The means of the body mass index (BMI), mid arm circumference (MAC) and calf circumference (CC) were about 23.4 kg \ m², 26.2 cm and 29.6 cm, respectively.

Elderly people, who were classified as malnourished, according to the (MNA), had the lowest (BMI), (MAC) and (CC).

When the score of the (MNA) was based on the diagnosis of the elderly, the results show that elderly subjects with more than one main diagnosis had a lowest score.

Based on the score of the (MNA) test, more than 1/4 of the subjects were malnourished.

Most of the subjects were consuming three meals and more than two serving of fruit and vegetables per day.

It seems that food intake was satisfactory, among subjects, despite that the present of malnourished subjects reached 26.5 %.

The result of the (MNA) test indicates the necessary of performing National nutritional assessment for this vulnerable group of people in Iraq.