Few nutrition level monitoring tools for the elderly persons

According to some reliable sources, nearly 81% of the elderly patients are exposed to nutrition-related health hazards. So, nutritional assessment is highly essential for the elderly persons. Many times, it has been seen that objective tests such as anthropometric, biochemical and clinical testing are very difficult to conduct and do not provide accurate results. The health monitoring tools are very effective in such cases. Numerous health assessment tools are available at the market place. Description of few such tools are given below which help in easily and reliably measuring and predicting the nutritional problems faced by the elderly people.

Nutritional Form for the Elderly

The Nutritional Form for the Elderly (NUFFE) covers fifteen items. The important items covered include diet, history and a general assessment. This tool created by RNJournal.com has resulted into increased detection of nutrition problems. It also resulted into higher patient referrals and overall satisfaction.

Mini Nutritional Assessment

The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) has also become very popular among the elderly persons. This health monitoring tool is very much useful for anthropometric measures and for physical examination. This incorporates questions to judge a person’s risk for nutritional problems. Different signs of malnutrition such as easy bruising, skin manifestation and thinning hair are tracked by this tool so as to assess the nutrition status of the elderly persons. Scores provided by this tool are used to differentiate between those at lower risk and those who are at higher risk of malnutrition.

Resident Assessment Instrument

The Resident Assessment Instruments (RAI) are used by numerous nursing homes. The RAI tools are mainly used by the nursing homes to detect the nutritional problems faced by the residents, including the elderly persons. To determine the nutritional level, things which are considered include history of weight loss and current weight & height. So as to judge the level of malnutrition, it also looks into the quantity and the quality of the intake. The RAI tool is applied as soon as the person takes admission. And, if the patient is found to be at high risk, he/she is immediately referred to a physician.

Mini Nutrition Assessment – Short Form

Mini Nutrition Assessment – Short Form (MNA-SF) is a dependable and capable tool. In this tool, generally the calf circumference is used. The questions that are asked through this tool generally include questions on prescription medications, mode of feeding, concurrent diseases and mobility.

The above mentioned nutritional tools are very much useful to assess the nutritional levels in the elderly persons.