Screening for nutritional risk among community-dwelling elderly on Prince Edward Island.
The purpose of this survey was to estimate the prevalence of nutritional risk among a group of community-dwelling older persons on Prince Edward Island, aged 70 years and over, and to examine the relationships between health-related factors and nutritional risk. Subjects (n = 215) were interviewed as part of the 1996 Canadian Study of Health and Aging. The prevalence of nutritional risk, as measured by the DETERMINE checklist, in PEI seniors was 37.1% (95% CI = 36.3, 37.9). The prevalence was estimated at 47% after adjusting for the sensitivity and specificity of the checklist. Only pain was a significant predictor of the presence or absence of nutritional risk (logistic regression, p = 0.05). The only predictor to discriminate between the three categories of no nutritional risk, moderate risk, and high risk was depression (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.035). Several limitations were identified with the use of the DETERMINE checklist.
MacLellan
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Department of Family and Nutritional Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI. maclellan@upei.ca
Van Til
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D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011325:Prince Edward Island; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric