Weight change, nutritional risk and its determinants among cognitively intact and demented elderly Canadians

Nutritional risk and its predictors were assessed by evaluating longitudinal changes in body weight using data collected from elderly community-dwelling and institutionalized Canadians who participated in both phases of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, CSHA (n = 10,263). Change in body weight (% initial weight) was examined over a 5-year interval in 584 community and 237 institutionalized participants, and its predictors tested in multiple and logistic regression analyses. Average weight at CSHA-2 was 97% of initial weight at CSHA-1. Values were lower in those over 90 years and the demented. Increasing frailty in a 7-point scale (beta = -1.23, p = 0.04) predicted weight loss in institutional participants, as did difficulty in eating unaided (beta = 4.24, p < 0.001) and reported loss of interest in life (beta = 2.22, p < 0.001) among community subjects. Some 16% in institutions and 9% in the community were at moderate/severe nutritional risk, disproportionately represented by the oldest subjects and the demented. These analyses support the importance of assessing dietary intakes, anthropometrics, well-being and environmental predictors of aging in the elderly.