Nutritional screening in community dwelling older adults

The purpose of this study was to test whether a combination of validated tools, one for each of five leading nutritional risk factors, could predict unintentional weight loss in community dwelling older adults.

Non-invasive, easily administered nutritional screening tools for community dwelling older adults are few and those that are available are problematic.

Convenience samples of 115 adults ≥65 were interviewed. Height, weight and measures of the five nutritional risk factors were collected at interviews 6 months apart.

Repeated measures.

91 subjects completing T2 were largely white (95.6%), female (69%), well educated and in good health. Multiple regression was conducted with unintentional weight loss as the dependent variable and depression (the GDS-SF), the Lubben Social Networking Scale, food security, food intake and Independent Activities of Daily Living as the predictor variables. The regression model was statistically significant (F (5, 85) = 0.30852, P = 0.003) with an adjusted r(2) of 0.137.

Five validated tools can be administered by nurses or non-professionals to screen for nutritional risk factors leading to unintentional weight loss.

Early screening has the potential to identify either nutritional risk or nutritional decline in older adults.