Basic needs in the elderly: Nutrition Needs

Nutrition plays an important role in health maintenance, rehabilitation, and prevention  and control of disease.  An understanding of the nutritional needs of older adults is essential to providing good nursing care. Good eating habits throught life promote physical wellness and mental well-being and an inadequate nutrition can result in serious problems such as malnutrition which can contribute to the development of osteoporosis and skin ulcers. In addition can complicate existing conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus

When we talk about nutrition in the elderly, we must show the inadequate supply due to physical changes, for example:

• Reduction in saliva flow and tendency to Dry mouth (xerostomia).
• Thinning and atrophy of the gums, missing teeth, dental replacement.
• Loss of mandibular muscle strength
• Decreased taste buds
• Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing solids or liquids) due to altered swallowing mechanism.
• Less competition sphincter that separates the esophagus from the stomach.
• Less acid secretion and atrophy of the overlying mucosa. They also make slower movements propulsion food into the small and gastric emptying (digestions slow and difficult).

As a result of changes in body composition and generally, the decline in physical activity, older people should take less calories compared to earlier stages of his life; because otherwise, progressively tend to get fat. In addition, due to his unhealthy diet, they used to have nutritional deficit. I have looked at the internet and i have found that many european studies say that vitamin D, B12, folic acid and zinc. 

As far as I´m concerned the nutricion is an importan factor in the health and it is really easy to change. So if we want that the elderly  have a good health we have to start controling him nutrition. 

But How can we control it? In my opinion, we can found many types of  questionnaires but i prefer the "Mini Nutritional Assessment" (MNA). I do not why i prefer this one, maybe is because i think that it is the most complete.  It is s a questionnaire designed specifically to assess the nutritional status of the elderly population about the anthropometric (weight, height ...), general assessment (lifestyle, medication and mobility), dietary assessment and subjective assessment (self-rated health and nutrition).

We can found this questionnaire here: http://www.mna-elderly.com/default.html

Bibliography

• Hoffmann G. Maintaining Fluid Balance and Meeting Nutrition Needs. Basic Geriatric Nursing 5th Edition. Missouri: Elsevier; 2012. p 102-130. 

• Estrella M. Nutrición en el anciano. 2012 November 22; Madrid, Spain. Available from: http://www.seen.es/docs/apartados/456/nutricion-anciano2012.pdf

• Morales I. Nutrición en el anciano sano. Clínica Universidad de Navarra. 2011 February 06. Available from: http://www.cun.es/area-salud/salud/nutricion-salud/nutricion-anciano-sano