Assessment of Nutritional Status in Older People

Abstract

Assessment of the nutritional status is a crucial item in the management of elderly people and a fundamental tool to improve life span. Elderly, indeed, are more prone to develop malnutrition, mainly due to a progressive cognitive decline, impaired metabolism pathways, reduced food intake, and physical activity. This causes severely affected body composition and clinical outcomes, resulting in vicious cycle that worsens the quality of life. An accurate nutritional assessment should be based on a step-by-step evaluation of all clinical outcomes, including evaluation of clinical signs, blood parameters, nutritional status, anthropometric parameters, and body composition. In this chapter, we eviscerated all these items, providing a useful and practical support for nutritional assessment in old subjects.