National survey of the Portuguese elderly nutritional status: study protocol

Abstract

BackgroundWorldwide we are facing a serious demographic challenge due to the dramatic growth of the population over 60 years. It is expected that the proportion of this population will nearly double from 12 to 22 %, between 2015 and 2050. This demographic shift comes with major health and socio-economic concerns. Nutrition is a fundamental determinant of both health and disease and its role in extending a healthy lifespan is the object of considerable research. Notably, malnutrition is one of the main threats to health and quality of life among the elderly. Therefore, knowledge about nutritional status among the elderly is essential for the promotion and maintenance of healthy ageing and to support the development of health protection policies and equity in elderly health care.MethodsThis is a nationwide nutrition survey of the Portuguese population over 65 years old, with data collection through face-to-face interviews. A representative and random sample of community dwelling elderly and nursing homes residents will be obtained by multistage sampling stratified per main Portuguese regions, sex and age groups. Minimum sample size was estimated to be 2077 elderly (979 in the community and 1098 in nursing homes). Data will be collected on food habits and eating patterns, nutritional status, food insecurity, lifestyle, self-rated general health status and self-reported diseases, functionality, loneliness, cognitive function, emotional status and demographic and socio-economic characterization.DiscussionThis is the first national survey to evaluate the prevalence of nutritional risk and malnutrition of the Portuguese population above 65 years old, including those living in nursing homes. It will allow the identification of population subgroups of elderly with increased odds of malnutrition and nutritional risk. In addition, this survey will contribute to the identification of psychosocial and clinical predictors of malnutrition among elderly, which is an important risk factor for other devastating medical conditions.

Nutritional assessment and factors associated with malnutrition among the elderly population of Nepal: a cross-sectional study

“…The proportion of this population is projected to grow by 56% between 2015 and 2030, and by 2050 the global proportion of elder populations is projected to be double than its size in 2015. The pace of population aging in many developing countries today is noticeably faster than occurred in developed countries in the past [1, 2].…”

Geriatric Assessment of the Portuguese Population Aged 65 and Over Living in the Community: The PEN-3S Study

“…It included a nationally representative sample of communitydwelling older adults (aged 65 and over) living in Portugal that participated in the PEN-3S (acronym for Portuguese Elderly Nutritional Status Surveillance System) project, which is detailed elsewhere. 13 Sampling and data collection described here resulted from a collaboration with the National Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (IAN-AF) 2014-2016. 14 Briefly, a multistage approach sampling was followed.…”

“…15 Anthropometric measurements followed the international standards for anthropometric assessment, as described elsewhere, and were performed with participants wearing minimal clothing and no shoes. 13,14,16 Weight and height were used to calculate body mass index (BMI = weight [kilograms, kg] / height [meters, m] 2 ). When it was not possible to follow the aforementioned standards, hand length was determined and used to estimate height with the appropriate validated Portuguese equations.…”

Correlation Between Nutritional Deficit and the Presence of Depressive Symptoms: Comparative Study Between Elderly Brazilians and Portuguese in Primary Health Care

“…In Brazil, an emerging country in South America, malnutrition is strongly associated with socioeconomic factors, such as low family income, female gender and low level of education (8) ; these data are also similar when analysing depression in the same country (9) . Portugal, the country with the fourth highest number of elderly people in the European Union, presents scarce literature on nutritional assessments, especially for its geriatric population (10) ; however, mental disorders are already a real concern in relation to the entire Portuguese population (11) .…”