[Energy requirements for frail elderly females]

About half the residents living in nursing homes and homes for the elderly show activity factor values less than 0.25 in daily living. However, the current Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) have been intended to apply to self-supporting and healthy elderly persons rather than bedridden elderly persons. Accordingly, current RDA tables do not indicate energy requirements for frail elderly people who show less values than 0.25 in activity factor. Consequently, in most institutions for the elderly, an adequate dietary energy supply for residents has been calculated on the basis of "level I (light)" in levels of physical activities. In this study, we measured the daily energy expenditures of 78 frail elderly females (age; 79.9 +/- 7.1 yrs) living in nursing homes and homes for the elderly. From these results, energy requirements for frail elderly females corresponding with 0.00 to 0.25 of the activity factor were provisionally estimated as to be 21 to 31 kcal/kg BW.