The nutrition situation of free-living elderly in Umlazi township, South Africa

Abstract

The risk for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke and ischaemic heart disease in the elderly continues to be on the increase. It is shaped and modified by factors such as economic status and experiences across the whole lifespan. Although malnutrition in this population could be due to poor dietary practices, the nutrition transition of communities in South Africa is partially responsible for nutritional problems. Because of the degree of dependency on others for help and care in communities, the elderly are at risk for malnutrition. The elderly of the Umlazi community are overburdened with the social responsibility of grandchildren and trying to bring stability by managing various households. This becomes a double burden and puts more strain on their quality of life, further impacting on their nutritional status.Die risiko vir chroniese siektes soos hipertensie, diabetes, beroerte en hartkwaal is steeds baie hoog in die bejaardes in Suid Afrika. Dit word deur faktore soos ekonomiese status en ervarings oor die hele lewesiklus gevorm en verander. Voedings probleme wat geïndentifiseer is in die studie hou verband met dieettekorte, alhoewel probleme met oorvoeding verband kan hou met die voedings oorgang wat plaasvind in Suid Afrikaanse gemeenskappe. In verskeie gemeenskappe, as gevolg van die graad van afhanklikheid van ander vir hulp en sorg, is die bejaardes blootgestel aan die risiko van wanvoeding. Die bejaardes van die Umlazi gemeenskap is oorlaai met die sosiale verantwoordelikheid van kleinkinders en probeer om verskeie huishoudings te stabiliseer, wat ‘n dubbele las op hulle plaas en dit kan hulle lewenskwaliteit affekteer wat dan hul voedingstatus verder kan vererger.

Hypertension in older adults in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The prevalence of hypertension ranged from 22.3% in community-based elderly residents in the Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria [56] to 90.0% among elderly residents in Umlazi township in South Africa [60, 74]. A combined total of 23,508 (57.2%) participants across the studies who had their blood pressure measured or who were on anti-hypertensive medication were reported to have hypertension.…”

Determinants of systemic hypertension in older adults in Africa: a systematic review

“…The 19 primary studies / publications covered 12 different countries with four from Ghana [22, 29, 34, 35]; three from Nigeria [24, 28, 37]; two each from Central African Republic/Congo [17, 36], South Africa [23, 32] and Uganda [33, 38]; and one each from Burkina Faso [27], Cameroon [39], Kenya [31], Senegal [30], Tanzania [40] and Tunisia [26] (Table 1). They involved a total of 30,500 participants out of whom 30,230 had their blood pressure measured.…”

“…They involved a total of 30,500 participants out of whom 30,230 had their blood pressure measured. The prevalence of hypertension ranged from 24.1% in a rural community in northern Ghana [29] to 90.0% in a South African township [32]. The crude prevalence across all the subjects in the 21 data contributions was 55.9%.…”

“…Overall, 51.9% of the enrolled subjects across the studies were female. In individual studies, the percentage female ranged from 31.4% [34] to 83.0% [41] (Table 1). Only four studies enrolled predominantly male subjects [27, 29, 30, 34].…”

“…Overall, the crude prevalence of hypertension in 10,478 females (61.6%) was higher than that of 8,327 males (56.9%) in the 15 studies (16 data contributions) in which the sex-specific prevalence was provided. In nine of these studies with ten data contributions, the prevalence was higher in females [17, 23, 25–27, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38] and in the remaining six, it was higher in males [22, 28, 29, 35, 39] (Table 1). The relationship between older age group or female sex and hypertension was statistically significant in Tunisia [26], South Africa [23], CAR and Congo [36] (Tables 3 and 4).…”