Assessment Of Nutritional Status Of Elderly Population Of Rural Areas:A Community Based Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Ageing is an inevitable and irreversible biological process that commences with birth, continues throughout life and ends in death. As per the United Nations, the cutoff age is 60 years and above for older age population. Globally the elderly population in 2020 was 727 million. In the coming three decades, the global population of older persons is predicted to increase by two fold, thus by 2050 the number will reach over 1.5 billion. The increase in the segment of older population will be witnessed by all the regions between 2020 and 2050. Globally, the older population forms 9.3 per cent of the total population in 2020 and is expected to rise to 16.0 per cent by 2050. A great proportion, 61% of elderly population are from developing country, but by 2025 the proportion will increase to approximately 70%. The 2011 census reports that India is the second most populated country in the world. The portion of the elderly population of India and Karnataka is 8.6% and 7.7% respectively. In India, the elderly population is predicted to rise to 19% that is 323 million people by 2050, and majority of them living in rural parts of India. The elderly dependency ratio will also increase from 0.12 to 0.31 because of decreased fertility rate and elongated life expectancy. To nurture good nutritional status and avoid the occurrence of malnutrition, frequent monitoring of the nutritional status in older people plays an important and key role. The nutritional status estimation forms important part in creating the database which can be used in formulation of important nutritional programs and policies. The elderly population is increasing with rapid rate but still this segment of population is often neglected and not many national programmes and policy are designed for elderly population. Hence the study was conducted with the aim to detect the nutritional status and analogue factors of elderly population living in rural areas with the help of MNA tool Objectives : 1. To assess the nutritional status of elderly people residing in the rural field practice area . 2. To study the factors related to nutritional status