The impact of nutrition on the health of the elderly

Abstract

Introduction: Elders have higher health risks due to changes connected with general abilities and everyday functioning as a result of biological ageing. Researchers have shown that 4 out of 5 elderly people suffer from some kind of chronic illness, and the needs of this population are mainly connected to the supply of adequate medical and social support. Adequate nutrition is an important protection factor, characteristic for the general health of the elderly population, in cases such as chronic cardiovascular diseases, cognitive problems, etc. Both obesity and malnutrition are important health problems amongst elders. The aim: The aim of this article is to analyze the importance of effects related to the nutritional needs amongst the elderly and to provide guidance for further researches. Materials and methods: The article is written based on recent scientific literature review, and uses descriptive methods and scientific documents analysis. Nutrition and health of elderly: Persons above the age of 65, suffer higher risk of health problems due to nutritional factors associated with illnesses commonly related to ageing, such as co morbidity in correlation with psychological health. Luger and others found connections between malnutrition, social participation and Qol amongst elders. Despite that, they couldn't prove if malnutrition is cause or consequence. New studies have shown nutrition has important influence on skeletomuscular pain, liver diseases, fractures, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cognitive problems and colorectal cancer. Conclusion: Based on present knowledge, we can conclude that adequate nutritional supply can work as an important protective factor to benefit the general health status of the elders. It is necessary to develop national health strategies, educate population, while national Social and Health policies needs to recognize the nutritional needs of elderly people to ensure they are able to get the right amount of healthy foods required for securing their well being. New research should focus on different dietary styles and gender differences in health status connected to dietary intake.

The Relationship between Certain Parental/Household Socio-Economic Characteristics and Female Adolescent Obesity in Montenegro

“…Today, obesity represents a public health challenge [1], and in many countries around the world, the issue is characterized as an epidemic [2]. Additionally, many authors consider obesity to be one of the factors that increases the risk for the occurrence of noncommunicable diseases [3,4], as well as one of the basic predictors of a person's health.…”