Assessment of Malnutrition in Community-Dwelling Elderly People:Cooperation Among General Practitioners and Public Health

Background: malnutrition, a very common condition in the elderly, is known to increase their vulnerability to adverse health events. this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition in the over 75-yr-old commu-nity-dwelling population in the “chiavarese” local health unit district (north west italy). methods: the short version of the mini nutritional assessment (mna-sf) was used by general practitioners (gp) as a screening tool to investigate the nutritional status of elderly people (1039 subjects). the study was conducted in 2012- 2013 in the local health unit of chiavari (liguria region), italy. the malnutrition was sub-sequently confirmed by means of biochemical parameters. subjects at risk of malnutrition or malnourished (n=22) received personalized dietary counseling by the gp. results: the mna-sf recognized 21% of the elderly people being at risk of malnutrition and biochemical tests confirmed a malnutrition prevalence of 3.5%. the dietary counseling improved the mna-sf score and bio-chemical parameters, but the difference was statistically significant only for the mna-sf score (p=0.00613). conclusion: malnutrition can be evaluated with a simple tool such as the mna-sf, recognized at the earliest stage and successfully treated by the gp.