Prevalence of Malnutrition among Elderly in Rural Field Practice area of Chengalpattu Medical College

Abstract

Background: People of elderly age group were more vulnerable in terms of health compared to younger age group and nutrition plays an important role in determination of health. Malnutrition including both under nutrition and obesity has major impact on health status of elderly population. Hence measures to prevent malnutrition in elderly was of utmost importance in present situation. Objectives: 1. To estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among people of age ≥ 60 years in rural field practice area of Chengalpattu Medical College. 2. To explore the factors contributing to malnutrition among the study population. Methodology: The study was a community based cross sectional study among 115 study participants in rural field practice area of Chengalpattu Medical College. The study population was arrived by Multistage sampling method and data was collected after obtaining permission from Institutional Ethical Committee and after getting informed consent from study participants. The study was conducted using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire which consists of sociodemographic details, personal habits, comorbidities and ailments, general examination, Anthropometry and nutrition assessment using Mini Nutrition Assessment tool. Data collected was entered in MS excel and data analysis done using SPSS version 20. Chisquare test and Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the data and p value <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Among the study population 35(30.43%) were males and 80(69.57%) were females. The mean age of entire study population was 68.11±5.561 years. Mean weight of the study participants was 54.65±10.04 kg. About 71(61.74%) participants had comorbidities and 49(42.61%) had addiction habits. The prevalence of malnutrition among the study participants was 12.17% and those at risk of malnutrition was about 49.56% according to Mini Nutrition Assessment and the prevalence of obesity was 6.09%, overweight was 18.26%, normal weight was 61.74% and underweight was 13.91%, based on Body Mass Index in the study area. There was a statistically significant (p-value <0.05) association between malnutrition (based on Mini Nutrition Assessment) in elderly and increasing age; illiteracy; those who were financially dependent population; those with psychological stress; people with reduced food intake and those taking < 3 meals per day. Female gender and presence of comorbidities had statistically significant association (p value <0.05) with obesity based on BMI. There was a Significant positive correlation between anthropometric measurements like weight, BMI, mid arm circumference and calf circumference and MNA scores both short form and full form except for height. Conclusion: The prevalence of Malnutrition among elderly in present study was 12.17% and more of concern was those at risk of Malnutrition contributed by 49.56%. Establishing Nutrition Centres for older people especially in rural areas emphasizing on healthy eating and promoting healthy lifestyle would be of immense help to achieve healthy and graceful aging.