Resumo

CARDENAS QUINTANA, Haydeé; BELLO VIDAL, Catalina; FEIJOO PARRA, Mitridates  e  HUALLPA ARANCIBIA, Elisa. Nutritional assessment of a group of older adults in Peru. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2004, vol.30, n.3, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

There is little information in Peru on the nutritional status of older adults over 60 years of age, so this led to the characterization of a group of non-institutionalized older adults by means of anthropometric and dietary evaluation. The study was performed on 53 older adults aged 60-62 years, all of them living in an urban poor area in Lima. Dietary data were collected by the 24h recall method and the Automated Diet Surveillance program was used to estimate adequacy percentages. Body Mass Index was also estimated. It was found that the nutritional status was unfavorable and the energy consumption was unsatisfactory in the majority of the studied aged people, being 36% of them in a very critical condition. 76% was short of protein, the highest protein intake came from animals, exceeding dietary recommendations. Zinc, folic acid, iron and calcium represented the lowest micronutrient intake. According to the BMI, 77% of undernourished older people was reported (63% by excess and 14% by deficit). Food deficit findings were inconsistent with BMI. It was stated that further studies are required to characterize the nutritional problems of this population group

Palavras-chave : OLDER ADULT; NUTRITIONAL STATUS; BODY MASS INDEX; NUTRIENT INTAKE.