Nutritional status survey of healthy noninstitutionalized elderly: Energy and nutrient intakes from three-day diet records and nutrient supplements

Older Adults Need Guidance to Meet Nutritional Recommendations

“…Although participants were from a specific geographical region, the observed levels and age-related reductions in total energy and macronutrients in these Southwestern senior adults compared well with results from other studies, including NHANES III [7,11,41,[48][49][50][51][52]. Typical daily energy intakes approximating 2000 kcals and 1600 kcals for older males and females respectively, are reported in studies despite differences in assessment methods that range from a single 24-hour recall used in NHANES III to multiple-day recalls, food records and FFQs [7,11,23,[48][49][50]52]. The less than recommended level of energy intake and nutrients at risk for low consumption seen in this study and others, provide evidence that nutritional guidance to older citizens should emphasize selection of more nutrient-dense foods to ensure recommended nutrient levels are met in spite of the age-related reduction in intake.…”

“…Failure to maintain bone mineralization with aging and the need to reduce the growing prevalence of osteoporosis among the aging factored into the higher standards [2][3][4][5]17,18]. Previous studies in which inadequate intakes were defined as intake levels at less than 2/3rds of the RDA reported inadequate intakes of vitamin D among 31% to 74% and of calcium among 13% to 54% of older adults [11,21,52]. The critical need for improvement in nutrients associated with bone health is apparent with the finding that more than four out of every five older adults reported inadequate intakes of vitamin D, calcium and dairy foods.…”

Energy and nutrient intake of young-old, old-old and very-old elderly in Germany

“…Although requirement of protein in the elderly is still under debate (Morse et al, 2001;Ritz, 2001), it can be stated that there is no risk of protein deficiency in our study group. Percentage of energy derived from protein was rather high; however, 17% of energy consumed as protein is also reported from other groups of elderly people (McGandy et al, 1986;Wright et al, 1995;Nicolas et al, 2001). A considerable proportion (9%) consumed more than 2 g/kg body weight per day and might therefore be at risk for unfavourable effects such as increased urinary excretion of calcium (Itoh et al, 1998) or synthesis of calcium oxalates in the kidneys (Holmes et al, 1993).…”

“…The median daily intake of energy of our participants was very similar to that recently reported from German elderly volunteers (Neuhäuser-Berthold et al, 2000) and just in the middle of the intake range reported in different European towns in the Euronut SENECA follow-up study (7.9-12.1 MJ in male and 5.5-10.2 MJ in female subjects; Moreiras et al, 1996). However, it was clearly higher than reported in many other studies with free-living elderly (McGandy et al, 1986;Ryan et al, 1992;Sjörgen et al, 1994;Wright et al, 1995;Bates et al, 1999;Marshall et al, 2001;Nicolas et al, 2001;Martins et al, 2002;Mensink et al, 2002;Nydahl et al, 2003). Generally, detailed comparisons between studies are difficult because of possible differences in dietary assessment methods and nutrient databases and also because of different composition of study samples with respect to important basic characteristics, such as age, health, nutritional status or activity, which may influence nutritional requirements.…”

“…Significant age-related differences within the elderly were mostly not observed (Löwik et al, 1989;Ryan et al, 1992;Rothenberg et al, 1993;Wright et al, 1995;Nydahl et al, 2003). However, a trend of decreasing intake with increasing age is reported in several studies (McGandy et al, 1986;Ryan et al, 1992;van der Wielen et al, 1994;Wright et al, 1995). Only Sjörgen et al (1994) reported a significant decrease of the intake of almost all nutrients in a Swedish population study of 70-and 76-y old elderly and a significant increase of the proportion with nutrient intakes below recommended amounts.…”