ABSTRACT

Elderly people in developing countries are vulnerable to health related predicaments associated with low income society, poor eating pattern, under nutrition, over nutrition, chronic illness and diseases. This study assessed the nutritional risk in older adults in Ezinihite and Obowo Local Government Area of Imo State. The study was cross-sectional and descriptive in design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the older adults residing the study area. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-economic characteristics, feeding pattern of the older adults. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and correlation analysis. Significance was accepted at P<0.05. The result showed that more than half (50.8%) of the respondents were married, most of them (63.6%) were between the ages of 65-75 years, a good number of them (48.3%) were primary school certificate holders and majority (96.3%) were Christians. The result showed that some (42.1%) were at risk of malnutrition, a few (19.0%) were malnourished and 38.8% had normal nutrition status. Half of the respondents (50.4%) consumed two or more servings of legumes per week and 49.6% consumed at least one serving of diary product per day. Only 40.9% consumed two or more servings of fruit and vegetable per day. The result for method of meal preparation showed that majority (75.2%) of the older adults steam their food. The anthropometric status shows that 62.4% of the older persons used in the study were underweight, 35.1% had normal BMI while 2.5% were overweight, whereas the study recorded no case of obesity. The analysis revealed that there exist a significant relationship between nutritional risk and socio-economic status, and dietary habits of the respondents. Therefore it is recommended that geriatric care givers should employ the services of a nutritionist so as to proffer solution to the reduction in weight with increase in age prevalent among older adults. Since fruit and vegetable consumption was shown to have a significant effect on nutritional risk, elderly are advised to consume more fruits and caregivers should try as much to incorporate fruits into the diet of elderly ones.