This study examined associations among the nutritional risks, the risk levels, and the ages of independently living elderly. The Checklist of the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) was administered to a purposive sample of 1004 Northeast Florida elderly to estimate an age-profile at risk for malnutrition. Checklist nutritional scores (cumulative of ten risks) were grouped into risk levels of low (scores 0-2, 64.3%), moderate (3-5, 29.5%), and high (6 and greater, 24.2%). Within each level, Checklists were grouped by respondents' age into young-old (60-74), old-old (75-79), and fragile-old (80-102). Eight nutritional risks' distribution across risk levels was significantly greater in respondents of the high-risk level as compared to those in the moderate and low-risk levels. A significant difference was found in the distribution of age groups across levels (x2=9.742, df=4, P=.045), with a larger proportion of the fragile-old in the low risk level (53.6%) than either the old-old (42.5%) or the young-old (43.6%). Elderly at greatest risk for malnutrition are aged 74-75 years and report illness, multiple medicines, economic hardship, and reduced social contact. The distribution of the risk "multiple medicines" (x2=12.17, df=4, P=.016) was consistently significant across all risk levels and age groups.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unf.edu/oai:digitalcommons.unf.edu:etd-1116 |
| Date | 01 January 1995 |
| Creators | Brokiewicz, Lynn Marie |
| Publisher | UNF Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | University of North Florida |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | UNF Theses and Dissertations |
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