Chapter One Introduction 1.1. Introduction: Nutrition refers to the processes by which a living organism ingests digests, absorbs and excretes nutrients. Nutrition as a clinical area is primarily concerned with the properties of food that build sound bodies and promote health. a good nutrition for a person is essential to good healthy body and prevents diseases and other health problems, the individual should be provided with knowledge about nutrition and the body nutritional requirement through the life span. The person must take diet that contains carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, water and fiber in sufficient amounts to meet optimal health (Cann et.al., 2007). Eating is basic for all human beings, …show more content…
These changes may be related to the normal aging process, medical condition or life style. Assessment of nutrition status is essential for preventing health problems in older adults and identifying the causes of nutrition disorder and understands the person nutritional status (Culross, 2008). Nutritional assessment as a clinical study is used to determine the nutritional status, risk factor and food related to older adults. The assessment can be useful to evaluate the status of the elder individual and identify the prevalence of certain health and nutrition risks among old adults (Keller, …show more content…
Many older adults may be under nourished. Poor nutritional status and malnutrition in the elderly population are important areas of concern. Malnutrition and unintentional weight loss contribute to a progressive decline in health, reduced physical and cognitive functional status, increased utilization of health care services, premature institutionalization, and increased mortality. Many health care practitioners inadequately address the multifactor issues that contribute to nutritional risk and to malnutrition. A common assumption is that nutritional deficiencies are an inevitable consequence of aging and disease and that intervention for these deficiencies are only minimally effective. Nutritional assessment and treatment should be a routine part of care for all elderly persons . Nutritional assessment is a multidimensional method of nutritional evaluation that allows diagnosis of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition in elderly people, nutritional assessment is important method to study nutritional status of elderly population living in institution for elderly