Screening for malnutrition in the elderly population: a tool for estimating height from knee height

Authors

  • Anil C Mathew PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and ResearchCoimbatore – 641004, India
  • Saranya Sampath St. Thomas College, Pala, Arunapuram, India
  • Darsana Das St. Thomas College, Pala, Arunapuram, India
  • M Vijayakumar PSG Institute of Medical Sciences andResearch, Coimbatore, India
  • N Ramakrishnan PSG Urban Health Training Centre, Peelamedu, Coimbatore, India
  • S L Ravishankar PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore,India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2014.1.1s.16

Keywords:

Malnutrition, MNA Questionnaire, Height, Knee heigh

Abstract

Malnutrition in old age is a significant problem. Body Mass Index predicts disease risk both in those termed underweight and in those who are obese. However, BMI may be unreliable in the presence of confounding factors and reliable estimation of height is difficult in the elderly because of vertebral compression, loss of muscle tone and postural changes. Mini Nutritional Assessment is a widely used international questionnaire to evaluate nutritional status of elderly. However, performing MNA is time consuming. The aim of the present study was to develop predictive equations to estimate height from knee height in elderly population. The malnutrition assessed using these equations shows fairly better agreement with malnutrition assessed using MNA questionnaire compared with malnutrition assessed using actually measured height and weight.

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Author Biographies

Anil C Mathew, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and ResearchCoimbatore – 641004, India

Professor of Biostatistics
Department of Community Medicine

Saranya Sampath, St. Thomas College, Pala, Arunapuram, India

Trainee Biostatistician, Department of Statistics and Biostatistics

Darsana Das, St. Thomas College, Pala, Arunapuram, India

Trainee Biostatistician, Department of Statistics and Biostatistics

M Vijayakumar, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences andResearch, Coimbatore, India

Community Medicine PG 2ndYear, Department of Community Medicine

N Ramakrishnan, PSG Urban Health Training Centre, Peelamedu, Coimbatore, India

Medical officer

S L Ravishankar, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore,India

Professor, Department of Community Medicine

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Published

2014-12-31

How to Cite

Anil C Mathew, Saranya Sampath, Darsana Das, M Vijayakumar, N Ramakrishnan, & S L Ravishankar. (2014). Screening for malnutrition in the elderly population: a tool for estimating height from knee height . Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences, 1(4(S), 79–83. https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2014.1.1s.16

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 4(S) (2014): Vol 1 | Issue 4(S), October - December 2014

Section

Table of Contents

License

Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license to published articles. Under this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but they allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited. Appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article.

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