Nutritional Status Assessment

Abstract

Nutritional status assessment (NSA) is the foundation for the provision of optimal nutritional care to patients of all ages. An NSA for the elderly should include four components: (1) Diet History and Evaluation, Including Socioeconomic and Functional Status, (2) Anthropometric Measurements, (3) Biochemical Evaluation, and (4) Nutrition Physical Examination (see Table 2.1). These four components, with the clinician’s expertise, provide direction for the development of the nutritional care plan. However, in geriatric nutrition many accepted procedures for determining nutritional assessment are affected by the aging process (see Table 1.1), thereby increasing the difficulty of assessing nutritional status.