ASSOCIATION BETWEEN NUTRITIONAL STATUS ACCORDING TO MINI NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT AND BODY MASS INDEX FOR COMMUNITY DWELLING ELDERLY WOMEN IN KOLKATA, INDIA

Bidisha Maity; Shaoli De; Indranil Saha; Minati Sen; Debnath Chaudhuri

Volume : IV, Issue : IX, September - 2015

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN NUTRITIONAL STATUS ACCORDING TO MINI NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT AND BODY MASS INDEX FOR COMMUNITY DWELLING ELDERLY WOMEN IN KOLKATA, INDIA

Bidisha Maity, Shaoli De, Indranil Saha, Minati Sen, Debnath Chaudhuri

Abstract :

<p>&lt;p&gt;Objectives: The study intends to observe nutritional status of the community dwelling elderly women using Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) Questionnaire and its association with Body Mass Index (BMI). Design: A cross sectional study was conducted between the months of November, 2013 to September, 2014. Participants: 169 community dwelling elderly women ( &amp;ge; 60 years ). Measurements: Nutritional status was assessed by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA &amp;reg;) Questionnaire and Body Mass Index (BMI). Results: Based on the MNA scores, 54.4% and 17.2% of the elderly women were at risk of malnutrition and malnourished, respectively, while 28.4% of them had normal nutritional status. Both MNA scores and BMI were found to decrease significantly with age. Average BMI was found to 25.56&amp;plusmn; 5.8 Kg/m2. Although significant positive association was found between MNA scores and BMI but overweight is common in all MNA groups. 66.3% of the participants had BMI &amp;gt; 22.9 kg/m2. Conclusion: Despite having high BMI, poor nutritional status as per MNA was observed among the participants, indicating BMI alone might not be a good index for the assessment of nutritional status for the elderly.&lt;/p&gt;</p>