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. Keywords Mini Nutritional Assessment Malnutrition Elderly BangladeshAll 191 member states of the United Nations have pledged to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, only a decade away 1 . The first of the eight stated goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. One of the indicators of this is to halve the number of people who are undernourished 2 . In order to achieve this goal, Svedberg 3 notes that five Ws will need to be addressed: what constitutes undernutrition; who the undernourished are; where they are located; when they are undernourished; and why they are undernourished. This study focuses on the 'who' and to some extent the 'why' questions.Of the 852 million people estimated to be undernourished during 2000 -2002 worldwide, 95% lived in developing countries 4 . Nearly one-third of the Bangladeshi population, or more than 42 million people, is malnourished in terms of undernutrition, with a daily dietary energy supply of less than 2190 kcal per capita 4 .In Western societies, elderly persons are more likely than younger adults to suffer from malnutrition 5 . A variety of functional, psychological, economic and social factors result in poor diet, qualitatively and quantitatively, that negatively influences the nutritional status of older people 6 . Malnourishment in the older population is also reported to be a consequence of inadequate food intake, underlying illnesses, gender (with women being at higher risk) and economic vulner...

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