Mini Nutritional Assessment of rural elderly people in Bangladesh: the impact of demographic, socio-economic and health factors

Abstract

Objective: In stating the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations aims to halve malnutrition around the world by 2015. Nutritional status of the elderly population in low-income countries is seldom focused upon. The present study aimed to evaluate the magnitude of malnutrition among an elderly population in rural Bangladesh. Design and setting: Data collection for a multidimensional cross-sectional study of community-based elderly people aged 60 years and over was conducted in a rural area in Bangladesh. Subjects: Of 850 randomly selected elderly individuals, 625 participated in home interviews. Complete nutritional information was available for 457 individuals (mean age 69^8 years, 55% female). Nutritional status was assessed using an adapted form of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) including body mass index (BMI). Age, sex, education, household expenditure on food and self-reported health problems were investigated as potential predictors of nutritional status. Results: BMI , 18.5 kg m 22 , indicating chronic energy deficiency, was found in 50% of the population. MNA revealed a prevalence of 26% for protein -energy malnutrition and 62% for risk of malnutrition. Health problems rather than age had a negative impact on nutritional status. Level of education and food expenditure were directly associated with nutritional status. Conclusion: In order to reduce world hunger by half in the coming decade, it is important to recognise that a substantial proportion of the elderly population, particularly in low-income countries, is undernourished.

Malnutrition in free-living elderly in rural south India: prevalence and risk factors

“…However, we had a smaller proportion of the population at risk of malnutrition (49 % v. 62 %). Compared with the results from a large study among rural elderly of Bangladesh (16) , our population shows lower rates of malnutrition. In comparison to studies among community-dwelling or home-care elderly in developed countries, our study showed a similar prevalence of risk of malnutrition but higher rates of overt malnutrition (17)(18)(19)(20) .…”

“…This finding has been shown in some previous studies (16,21) , while others have shown that age has no effect on nutritional status (17,24) . We observed that the older subjects were less active and often reported reduced appetite and decreased food intake.…”

“…A similar finding was reported in Bangladesh, where most of the elderly who were malnourished or at risk of malnourishment consumed only two meals daily (16) . Other studies involving communitydwelling elderly have shown that chewing problems and difficulty preparing or eating full meals contribute to poor nutritional status (11,17,24) .…”

“…Although we chose to use the MNA without any modifications, the cutoff values for BMI and malnutrition differ between populations and hence our results should be interpreted accordingly. Other studies have modified the MNA for use in their respective populations (16,22) , however, without validation of the same. Previous studies in south India have shown a high prevalence of undernutrition among the elderly (9,10) , suggesting that our estimate appears close to the true value.…”

“…Studies that have been done in India and other developing countries using this questionnaire have found it to be useful and accurate (11,16) . We aimed to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among free-living elderly in a rural south Indian setting using the MNA and to look for associated risk factors.…”