Assessing the prevalence of malnutrition with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in a nationally representative sample of elderly Taiwanese.
OBJECTIVE
The study was to determine whether the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) could be used as a tool to effectively identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population.


METHODS
The study was a part of a population-based multistage random sample survey.


METHODS
In-home face-to-face interviews.


METHODS
Randomly selected 1583 men and 1307 women, 65 years or older, in Taiwan.


METHODS
Assessing nutritional risk status of participants with the Mini Nutritional Assessment.


RESULTS
The prevalence of malnutrition is 1.7% in elderly men and 2.4% in elderly women, 65 years or older. The proportion at risk of malnutrition is 13.1%.


CONCLUSIONS
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the MNA to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition in the elderly in a nationally representative sample. Results suggest that the MNA can identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population. However, it appears that the functionality of the instrument can be improved by adapting population-specific anthropometric cutoff standards.
Tsai
A C
AC
Human Nutrition Program, Dept. of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. atsai@umich.edu
Ho
C-S
CS
Chang
M-C
MC
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology