Estado nutricional y hábitos alimenticios del adulto mayor jubilado, Asociación 12 de abril Cuenca, 2016

Abstract

Background: Eating habits are the ones that determine the nutritional status of humans. This depends of the availability, the requirement, the intake and the amount of food we consume. In addition, these play an important role for an optimal performance of the different activities that the human develops. Being elderly, the practice of unhealthy eating habits, plus a physical inactivity and other factors of age, such as physical, psychological and social changes, can produce a series of complications such as poor diet, obesity and malnutrition. General Objective: To determine the nutritional status and eating habits of the retired elderly people, of the "Association 12 de Abril" from Cuenca, 2016 Methodology: a descriptive, quantitative, cross - sectional study was carried out with a finite universe of 60 elderly adults. The research technique was the observation and for the compilation of information we applied forms. Two instruments were used to collect the information: "Mini Nutritional Assessment" (MNA) and consume of habits and feeding practices. Lera. L. Results: In the retired elderly people of the “Association 12 de Abril”, according to the MNA form, 95% of people in this study have a normal nutritional status, followed by 3% that show a risk of malnutrition and 2% suffer from malnutrition. However, according to the OMS classification of nutritional status, 45% of respondents have a normal weight, 35% of the specimen are overweight, and 15% are obese. Within the feeding habits, 97% drink water, 71.6% fast food, and 60% eat bread. Conclusion: The nutritional habits are those that influence the nutritional status of older adults of the "April 12 Association", since in the present investigation 45% is with normal weight according to OMS classification