Nutritional assessment of the elderly

1. The elderly often have a declining ability to absorb and utilize nutrients, and they frequently take medications that interfere with the body's use of nutrients. 2. Nutritional assessment involves history taking (medical, social, and psychological) and physical examination with physical measurements and analysis of laboratory data. 3. The most frequently used indicators of nutritional risk or depletion are those obtained by nurses in direct contact with patients. 4. Nurses tended to rely more on intuitive data than on laboratory values, upper arm circumference, or skinfold thickness.