Riesgo nutricional y hábitos alimentarios en adultos mayores del centro de atención integral para grupos prioritarios, Ibarra 2023

Abstract

Aging is associated with physiological changes that can give rise to nutritional alterations, and early identification is critical to limiting mortality and morbidity. In this research, nutritional risk and eating habits were evaluated in non-institutionalized older adults who attended the Comprehensive Care Center for priority groups in the city of Ibarra, Ecuador. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 60 older adults aged 60 and over. The questionnaire was composed of sociodemographic data, eating habits through the Food Quality Survey for the Elderly (ECAAM), and nutritional risk with the Mini Nutritional Assessment tool (MNA). A total of 53.33% of the population studied are men, while 46.67% are women; the average age was 69.83 ± 10.69 years. 5% of the subjects presented malnutrition, and 58.3% were at risk of malnutrition. Using BMI, 20% of the subjects studied were thin, and 36.67% were overweight and obese. Likewise, 96.67% presented poor quality of food. It was found that there was no relationship between nutritional risk and eating habits (p > 0.05). One out of every two older adults presented malnutrition or risk of malnutrition, and all of them had poor-quality diets; however, these two variables did not show a significant association. Future research will be essential to clarify this non-relationship.