Nutritional assessment in geriatrics
Changes that occur naturally during the ageing process put the elderly population at greater risk of malnourishment. Altered body composition and the reduction of skeletal muscle mass is a key clinical feature of malnutrition, and should be a criterion for diagnosis as well as treatment and follow-up of patients with malnutrition. Assessing the nutritional status of elderly patients is an integral component of a comprehensive geriatric assessment. Screening tools, anthropometric measurements and body composition estimations are useful methods for assessing nutritional status in seniors, although a gold standard which should be used for the geriatric population has not been developed yet.
Key words:
geriatric medicine; malnutrition; nutritional assessment; sarcopenia; screening