Assessment of the nutritional risk of >53-year-old men and women in Taiwan

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to gain an understanding of the status of potential nutrition risks in >53-year-old men and women in Taiwan.

Methods: The study employed a validated nutrition-risk screening questionnaire, the Mini Nutritional Assessment, to assess the potential risk of undernutrition in the elderly population in Taiwan. The questionnaire was translated into the local language, Chinese, and was modified slightly based on cultural considerations. It was administered to 4440 randomly selected subjects by means of face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire included questions on subjective self-evaluations, global parameters, simple dietary assessment and some anthropometric measurements.

Results: Results show that the questionnaire can be used effectively as a tool to screen for individuals who are at risk of undernutrition. It showed that the proportion of the elderly population at risk of nutritional inadequacy is relatively low, but does increase with advanced ageing. The proportion of the elderly considered at high risk of undernutrition was found to increase with age, ranging from 0.88% for 53-60-year-old subjects to 1.86% for subjects aged 60-70 years, 3.6% for 70-80-year-olds and 5.3% for >80-year-old subjects.

Conclusion: The study showed that a simple questionnaire adopted from the Mini Nutritional Assessment can be employed to provide a preliminary screening and to identify individuals who are potentially at increased risk of nutritional inadequacy in the elderly population in Taiwan.