The evaluation of nutritional situation of elderly nursing home residents

Aging is an evolutionary process that continues from birth to death in every organism, while older age is the effect of increasing age. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines aging as "a decreasing in ability to adapt to the environment". The aging period is divided into 64-74 (early / young age), 75-84 (middle age/old age), 85 and older age is 3. With aging, physiological changes and many health problems arise. Among these problems, nutrition-related health disorder seem to have an important place. In this study, MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) was applied to 97 elderly individuals living in Kirsehir and Isparta Nursing Homes and tried to determine the malnutrition status of the elderly. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) is a simple tool, useful in clinical practice to measure nutritional status in elderly persons. Anthropometric measurements include questions about general and subjective assessment and nutrient uptake. When nutritional status of the elderly was examined according to gender, 45,6% of the males and 32,5% of the females were found to have no nutritional problems. Risk of malnutrition was found in 47,7% of males and malnutrition in 7% of males, whereas these rates were 47,4% and 12,4% in females, respectively. There was no significant difference between males and females in terms of malnutrition. Key words: Aging, female, male, nutrition, nursing home.