Nutritional Status of Elderly in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study described three anthropometric measures (height, weight and Body Mass Index [BMI]) of elderly in Asaba, Nigeria. Data was derived from 176 subjects who attended the Medical Lectures of the Ebreme foundation for the elderly in Asaba. The SPSS (Statistic Package for Social Science) version 17.0 was used for data analysis. This study had 62.5% males and 37.5% females. Approximately 18.2% was aged 50-59 years, 43.8% (60-69 years), 29% (70-79 years) and only 9.1% aged 80 years or more. The general population had a mean weight of 70.98±13.98 kg, height 1.61±0.11 m and BMI 27.36±5.60 kg/m². The male subjects had significant lower body weight (70.55±12.07 kg) and BMI (25.90±4.2160 kg/m²) than the females (71.70±16.76 kg and 29.79±6.7060 kg/m² respectively) with taller height (1.65±0.08 m) than the women (1.55±0.12 m). The weight and height decreased with age; 50-59 year group had 79.75±15.21 kg, 60-69 years (70.56±12.58 kg), 70-79 years (69.25±13.49 kg) while from 80 years and above had 61.00±10.62 kg. The height decreased from 1.66±0.07 meters (50-59 years group) to 1.54±0.17 meters (from 80 years and above). This study revealed that the nutritional indices of the elderly in Asaba, Nigeria decline with higher magnitude before the age of 60 years and from 80 years. This call for special nutritional and health attention to the aged before and after their 60^th and 80^th birthday respectively.