Comparison of the incidence of eating habit nutritional risk indicators between newly admitted geriatric patients with and without self-perceived chewing difficulty

Abstract

Malnutrition is considered a rising danger for older adults, but, with effective screening, improved prevention and intervention methods can be achieved in this population. Recently the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) introduced screening tools to be used in the geriatric population. Among the risk indicators found on the NSI Level II Screen is chewing difficulty. The purpose of this study was to determine if the eating habit nutrition risk indicators found on the Level II Screen occurred more frequently in those with self-perceived chewing difficulty than those without reported chewing difficulty. Thirty-five newly admitted geriatric patients at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Bronx, New York, were studied. The hospital charts of the subjects were reviewed, within 3 days of admission to ensure that they were at least 65 years of age and that there was no documentation of mental or cognitive impairment. The subjects were grouped as those with self-perceived chewing difficulty (n=10) or those without self-perceived chewing difficulty (n=25), according to their response to the question, “Do you have any difficulty chewing?”. Eating habits were obtained through interview, by asking the subjects the questions found on the screening tool. The frequency of nutritional risk indicators between the two groups were compared using the chi square test at p ≤ 0.05. There were no significant differences found, with eating habit nutritional risk indicators occurring with similar frequency between the two groups. In addition, 46% of all subjects consumed less than the recommended amounts of vegetables, fruit/fruit juices, milk/milk products and grains/cereals. Because so many subjects were consuming less than the dietary recommendations for these foods, it was clear that there was a need to examine the dietary adequacy for this geriatric population. The NSI Level II Screen provides general criteria for nutritional risk which can be quickly and easily obtained. Dietitians are in the position to use this screening tool to identify malnutrition indicators early and to establish standard risk criteria within this population.