[Assessment of nutritional status in the elderly]

Numerous reports have shown that there is a close relationship between elderly malnutrition and elderly mortality and morbidity. On the other hand, the aging process leads to declines in physical, psychosocial and spiritual functions, which directly or indirectly limit the quantity and quality of the intake of nutrients by the elderly. As a result, malnutrition is commonly observed in geriatric nursing practices. There is therefore an urgent need for a simple, economical but precise tool for the assessment of nutritional status, to help health practitioners to identify potential cases of malnutrition early on so that intervention can be undertaken as early as possible and the quality of geriatric nursing care can be raised. In this article, two clinical methods, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA), are introduced. They are valuable tools in the assessment of elderly nutritional status.