| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Diagnosing undernutrition in elderly people | | Author(s) | S E Gariballa, A J Sinclair |
| Journal title | Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, vol 7, no 4, November 1997 |
| Pages | pp 367-371 |
| Keywords | Malnutrition ; Diagnosis ; Nutrition ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | Nutritional assessment has three main aims: to define the type and severity of malnutrition; to identify high-risk patients; and to monitor the efficacy of nutritional support. The authors describe methods used to assess nutritional status: dietary survey; anthropometric measurements (height, demispan, arm span, body mass index or BMI, skinfold thickness, and mid-arm circumference or MAC); clinical laboratory tests; and general assessment. They conclude that there are problems in diagnosing undernutrition in older people, because of the physical and biochemical changes which may take place as part of the normal ageing processes. Overt clinical signs of undernutrition may be late in their appearance. The various screening instruments lack sensitivity and specificity and cannot be relied on individually; but in combination these screening instruments, including clinical assessment, food-frequency questionnaires, and selected anthropometric, haematological and biochemical variables, are accepted measurements of nutritional status. Of particular importance are involuntary body weight changes or values below an established population standard. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981119223 A |
| Classmark | CSM: LK7: CF: 4C |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|