Gauravi Santosh Bapat* and Anuradha Shekhar

Associate Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Dr. BMN College of Home Science, S.N.D.T University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

*Corresponding Author: Gauravi Santosh Bapat, Associate Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Dr. BMN College of Home Science, S.N.D.T University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Received: July 24, 2021; Published: August 04, 2021

Abstract

Geriatric is a term used for elderly people or older adults. Aging is characterized by diminished organ system reserves, weakened homeostatic controls, increased heterogeneity among individuals influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Nutritional needs of the elderly are determined by multiple factors including specific health problems and related organ system compromise on individual’s level of activity, energy expenditure, caloric requirements, the ability to access, prepare, ingest, digest food and personal food preferences. Factors that can affect individual aging rates include diverse occurrences as genetic profile, food supply, social circumstances, political events, exposure to disease, climate, natural disasters and other environmental events.

In India the demographic transition is attributed to the increasing fertility and decreasing mortality rates due to availability of better health care services. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional status of urban geriatric population between the age group of 65-75 years. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 60 elderly people to conduct the study. Anthropometric measurements, physical activity pattern, sleeping pattern and eating pattern were assessed by a structured questionnaire which included questions on background data, 24 hour diet recall and food frequency.

 Analyses were performed by SPSS software and the data findings were considered to be significant. Of the total number of 60 participants 25% were men and 75% were female. The height and weight results indicated highly significant lower differences when compared with reference standards. Most of the subjects had BMI in the normal range of 18-23 kg/m². Along with height and weight, the hand grip strength was also measured. It was observed that most of the participants had poor hand grip strength. The consumption of macro and micronutrients was low when compared to the RDA’s. The mean calorie, protein and fat intake was 1100 kcal, 31.7g and 34.08g for women and 1219 kcal, 37.7g and 35.08g for men respectively.

It was also observed that most of the subjects did not indulge in any kind of physical activity. Most of the participants slept for 8 hours on a daily basis. It was observed that all the subjects consumed cereals and dals on a regular basis but the consumption of fruits and leafy vegetables was comparatively low.

Hence it can be concluded that efforts need to be taken towards counselling for the elderly to encourage them to have optimum nutrition and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Keywords:Geriatric Population; Nutritional Status; Anthropometry; Physical Activity; Food Frequency; Hand Grip Strength

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Citation

Citation: Gauravi Santosh Bapat and Anuradha Shekhar. “Nutritional Assessment of Geriatric Population (65 - 75 Years)".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 5.9 (2021): 03-08.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Gauravi Santosh Bapat and Anuradha Shekhar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.