| Description |
Malnutrition is a significant problem in the elderly, with as much as 10% of the population living in communities being malnourished and with rates rising significantly higher in long-term care residents. The geriatric population is expected to double over the next sixty years and malnutrition is expected to rise in parallel with this increase. Malnutrition can cause many disabling consequences such as increased fragility, muscle weakness, decreased physical function, increased falls, delayed wound healing and decreased muscle mass. Nutritional screening is highly important for detecting emerging nutritional problems in the elderly. Early risk detection and timely intervention has shown to decrease and often improve the nutrition status of elderly individuals. There is very limited information on the nutritional status of veterans, and no information on the nutritional status of elderly veterans living in rural areas. Adequate nutrition is a necessary component required to maintain health, however, elderly veterans are at a higher risk for developing malnutrition than their younger counterparts. Increased chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and social and economic factors caused by the aging process are known risk factors. Rural individuals experience greater inadequacies of food resources, inability to afford balanced meals, skip meals, and have an increased hardship to obtain food due to distance or lack of transportation. Nutritional screening will help identify rural veterans at risk, and allow interventions to be made in the primary care setting. The Mini Nutritional Assessment short form (MNA-SF) evaluates nutritional status, adequately determines if malnutrition is a problem, and allows for interventions to detect, prevent, and treat malnutrition. There were five goals for this project. Developing a guideline for clinical practice to utilize the MNA-SF for nutritional screening of elderly veterans at a rural community-based outreach clinic (CBOC), collecting data, and results to adequately determine the nutritional status of elderly veterans in the Uintah Basin, and developing an educational nutritional guide for healthcare practitioners to supply as a resource for elderly veterans and their caregivers were the goals for this project. Malnutrition is associated with adverse effects affecting both the morbidity and mortality of the geriatric population; however, nutrition is highly under-screened and under-diagnosed. Seventy percent of healthcare practitioners agreed there is significant value in screening, however only 26.6% actually perform yearly routine screenings. The MNA-SF is one of the most reliable and frequently used nutritional screening tools in the geriatric population, and has gained international validation. This project was implemented by assessing the results of the MNA-SF that was administered to all veterans during their annual patient visit at the CBOC. Data from the MNA-SF was collected and the results showed that almost 19% of elderly veterans in the Uintah Basin are either at risk for malnutrition or are malnourished, while an additional 21% were at the lowest number in the normal range of nutritional status. Although this project focused on nutritional status, results also showed that 78.7% of males were classified as overweight or obese; 4.7% higher than the national average. A nutritional guide was developed and customized for the geriatric population according to the results obtained, and delivered to the CBOC. In summary, increased chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and social and economic factors caused by the aging process are known risk factors associated with malnutrition. The MNA-SF is a validated tool for primary care practitioners to evaluate the nutritional status of elderly veterans and be able to adequately screen in primary practice to detect, prevent and correct malnutrition. |
