Análise da avaliação antropométrica após intervenção nutricional em idosos institucionalizados.

Abstract

Aging is part of the natural process of human beings and is influenced by several factors, such as physiological, psychological and social factors. There is evidence that as the population ages, physical changes occur, especially in the body composition of the elderly. One of the problems observed is malnutrition in the elderly, which can consequently lead to sarcopenia, which represents a skeletal muscle disorder characterized by the loss of muscle mass, in addition to muscle strength or physical function, worsening with malnutrition in the elderly. This study sought to evaluate malnutrition in institutionalized elderly individuals after nutritional intervention. Therefore, this is a study of nutritional interventions in elderly individuals from an ILPI (long-term care facility for the elderly) in a municipality in Curimataú, Paraíba. All elderly individuals residing in the institution participated in the study, and were evaluated before and after nutritional intervention with hypercaloric, multivitamin and mineral supplementation. Anthropometric assessments were performed, in which weight, height, abdominal, arm and calf perimeter, waist and hip circumference were measured in triplicate by trained anthropometrists. After diagnosis, the study population underwent a 150-day nutritional intervention and the analyses were repeated in order to compare the data and verify the effectiveness of the intervention in the nutritional status. The results obtained demonstrated that the 150-day intervention, with hypercaloric, hyperprotein, multivitamin and mineral supplementation, contributed to significant results in some anthropometric indicators, especially in the increase in triceps and biceps skin folds. In addition, a tendency towards an increase, but without significance, in body weight and in the circumference of the arm and abdomen was observed. It is concluded that the nutritional intervention contributed to the improvement of the nutritional status of institutionalized elderly people, reducing the risk of malnutrition and promoting weight gain, still requiring continuous care.