Malnutrition In the Elderly: A systematic review

Malnutrition In the Elderly: A systematic review
fatemeh valipour,^1,* zeinab sadat moosavifard,² ashraf beirami,³ shekufe zaree,⁴ shilan azizi,⁵
1. BSc in Nursing, Department of Nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
2. Department of Nursing, Faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
3. Department of Nursing, Faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
4. Department of Nursing, Faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
5. Department of Nursing, Faculty of nursing, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Introduction: Introduction: :The phenomenon of aging has become a universal subject and the world wide elderly population is continuously on the rise due to improvement of health-care services and an increase in an hopefully outlook towards life. Access to an appropriate nutrition has a profound impact on the state of health and the quality of life in the geriatric population. The elderly population is more vulnerable in terms of nutrition due to the use of a wide variety of medications, solitude, depression, lower quality of life, acute and chronic illnesses, hospitalization, nutritional insecurity, social, physiologic and health variations.The aim of the systematic review study at hand is to explore malnutrition in the elderly.
Methods: Methods: In this study, which is type of systematic review with evaluation of credible books, cases and concepts related to the subject, research in credible scientific information databases including SID, PubMed, google scholar, Iran medex, using keywords such as “elderly people” “diet” and “malnutrition” which yielded a total of 350 studies; among which those with a complete text that were published within the last 5 years were selected for further evaluation.
Results: Results: The results of the study indicated that the likelihood of the elderly to develop a form of malnutrition is alarmingly high. Solitude, isolation from society and being neglected by their children are some of the most important issues within the older population. At the same time, emotional distress and a rise in depressive disorders makes for further complications in maintaining a proper diet. Malnutrition in the elderly who possess an ever-changing immune system could possibly result in an uptick in acquired infections.
Conclusion: Conclusion: Considering the importance of the state of nutrition and its role in health and quality of life in the elderly, it seems that a continuous screening program and evaluation of diet in this population is of utmost value. Presentation of various healthy living teaching from younger ages in order to avoid the occurrence of many complications in seniors is one of the measures in prevention of malnutrition. Preventive measures include interventions in screening, on-time diagnosis, treatment and informative teachings.
Keywords: Elderly Population, Diet, Nutrition, Malnutrition, Disease