老人營養狀況之評估

Assessment of Nutritional Status in the Elderly

許多的研究顯示，老年人營養不良與其罹病率與死亡率息息相關。而由於老化所帶來身心社會等各層面的功能退化，直接或間接的限制了老年人進食的質與量，致使營養不足或不良現象，成為老人照護上常見之問題。因此，臨床上極需經濟、簡易且精確性高的營養評估工具，以協助醫療專業人員早期姿現潛在性營養不良之危險個案，進而即早介入，以提升老年人整體照護品質。本文目的即在介紹兩項臨床可運用之測量方法，迷你營養評估量表（Mini Nutritional Assessment, MNA）及生物電子阻抗儀（Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, BIA），以作為臨床評估老人營養狀態時之參考。

Numerous reports have shown that there is a close relationship between elderly malnutrition and elderly mortality and morbidity. On the other hand, the aging process leads to declines in physical, psychosocial and spiritual functions, which directly or indirectly limit the quantity and quality of the intake of nutrients by the elderly. As a result, malnutrition is commonly observed in geriatric nursing practices. There is therefore an urgent need for a simple, economical but precise tool for the assessment of nutritional status, to help health practitioners to identify potential cases of malnutrition early on so that intervention can be undertaken as early as possible and the quality of geriatric nursing care can be raised. In this article, two clinical methods, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA), are introduced. They are valuable tools in the assessment of elderly nutritional status.