Elderly Nutrition

    Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle CASE STUDIES, CALCULATIONS & GROWTH CHARTS Worksheet 18-1: Assessment of the Nutritional Status of the Elderly John, 78 years old, is a sometimes homeless veteran. He is missing many teeth from years of no dental care. John receives a monthly retirement check but he has great difficulty meeting his monthly bills, let alone buying enough food, and this has caused many evictions. When he can afford them, John has his prescriptions filled for a diuretic (for high blood pressure) and a statin (for high cholesterol). John isn’t sure what his current weight is, but he has had to tighten his belt to the last notch over the past eight months. He has no family with whom he is still in contact, and he eats all of his meals alone. At a neighbor’s insistence, John is visiting the local senior center to eat lunch for the first time. The day he visits, each person is having a free nutrition screen completed by a program staff member. Questions: 1. Using the “Determine Your Nutritional Health” checklist (p. 459), assess John’s nutritional status. What is his score? 2. Review the “DETERMINE: Warning signs of poor nutritional health” checklist shown in Table 18.5 (p. 458). Prioritize John’s nutrition problems based on this screening tool. 3. What parts of the nutrition education handout created by the University of Florida IFAS Extension (access at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/he944) should be used to provide nutrition education to John? 4. What should the local senior center registered dietitian do for John to help address the nutrition problems you identified in #2?