Nutritional assessment of people over the age of 60 in Pasto City, Colombia

Abstract

Malnutrition is a problem that is most commonly observed among aging populations, increasing their morbidity and mortality. Objective: To determine the nutritional status of adults over 60 years of age in Pasto, Colombia and its relationship with sociodemographic variables. Material and method: Observational, descriptive study. The population was made up of older adults from the city of Pasto, 45,953 adults. The sample was 426. The type of sampling was a non-probabilistic, convenience sample with quotas stratified by age and sex. A survey was used to obtain sociodemographic data and the Mini Nutritional Assessment Test used for nutritional assessment. Results: 61.7% of the participants were women, the average age was 72 years. In the nutritional assessment the highest percentage (60.1%), is at risk of malnutrition, 31.8%, has a normal nutritional status and 8.1% suffers from malnutrition. There were significant differences in MNA according to educational level and socioeconomic stratum. Conclusion: Older adults living in the community of the city of Pasto, are at risk of malnutrition according to MNA. A relation was found between malnutrition and low educational an socioeconomic level. It is vital to intervene in this population in an interdisciplinary manner since this condition predisposes other situations that alter the health of the elderly such as cognitive deterioration and frailty. It is fundamental to consider that the nutritional status is one of the most used nursing diagnoses in practice and it is necessary to assess it in people over 60 years of age. © 2017, Universidad de Concepcion. All rights reserved.