[Health and nutrition status of older adults in Mexico: results of a national probabilistic survey].
OBJECTIVE
To describe health and nutrition status in the elderly population in Mexico.


METHODS
Information from 5,480 adults (>60 years) obtained by the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-2006) was analyzed. Frequencies, means, and confidence intervals at 95% were obtained and adjusted for design effect.


RESULTS
Forty percent of the adults reported a lack of social security, 2% suffered from malnutrition, women were affected two times more than men by anemia (34.8 vs. 17%), more than 60% of the population were overweight and had obesity, approximately 25% suffered from hypertension according to the survey, and between 15 and 20% were diabetic.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study show that health and nutrition status among the Mexican elderly population is inadequate. This is a situation that urgently needs to be addressed in order to improve the quality of life of older adults in Mexico.
Centro de Investigaciones en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México. tshamah@insp.mx
Teresa
T
Shamah-Levy
Lucía
L
Cuevas-Nasu
Verónica
V
Mundo-Rosas
Carmen
C
Morales-Ruán
Leticia
L
Cervantes-Turrubiates
Salvador
S
Villalpando-Hernández
D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D000886:Anthropometry; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006184:Habits; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000453:epidemiology; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
Estado de salud y nutrición de los adultos mayores en México: resultados de una encuesta probabilística nacional.