Nutritional status, macronutrient and micronutrient intake in relation with dementia among older adults in Surabaya, Indonesia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Older adults are prone to dementia due to poor nutrients intake and malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between body mass index (BMI), macronutrient and micronutrient intake with dementia. Methods This was a cross-sectional study including 400 older adults randomly recruited from the study site. Dementia was measured using the mini-mental state exam questionnairefig while nutrient intake was retrieved from three non-consecutive days 24h food recall. Socio-economic data were retrieved from a structured questionnaire. Data was then analyzed statistically using chi-squared and ANOVA with Bonferonni correction. Results The result reveals that age, sex, present disease and socio-economic measures were correlated with dementia (p < 0.05). Post-hoc analysis found that there was a significant difference in BMI, daily intake of carbohydrate, saturated fat, and sodium intake between older adults with and without dementia. Conclusions This study offers an important insight to improve older adults’ daily intake related to BMI, carbohydrate, saturated fat, and sodium intake in minimizing the risk of dementia. More health promotion on older adults’ balanced diet should be encouraged to achieve better quality of life.