NUTRITIONAL ADEQUACY AND ORAL NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTATION IN OLDER COMMUNITY-DWELLING ADULTS

Background: Older adults (65 years and older) comprise a high-risk group that are susceptible to the development of malnutrition. Dietary intake and diet quality represent key modifiable risk factors to help prevent and to treat declines in nutrition status, with oral nutritional supplements (ONS) often being a cost-effective therapy for many to increase protein and caloric intake. The DETERMINE Checklist offers a series of questions capable of mapping the initial landscape of contextual factors that influence the dietary patterns of the at-risk populations. Objectives: To examine independent predictors of inadequate dietary intake and poor diet quality amongst a multi-ethnic sample of urban community-dwelling older adults in an effort to identify target groups of participants that could benefit most from an ONS intervention. Design: Cross-sectional. Participants: Chicago, Illinois, United States urban residents greater than 55 years of age who self-reported to be non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic. Methods: Telephone surveys were conducted to obtain basic demographic information. The DETERMINE Checklist was administered to (1) characterize participants’ nutritional risk, and (2) identify participants with inadequate intake and/or poor diet quality. Predictors of inadequate intake, defined as any participant who reported either to eat less than two meals per day and/or poor diet quality, defined as any participant who reported to eat few fruits, vegetables or dairy were used to identify groups of participants who could benefit most from ONS consumption. Mantel-Hanzel chi square, Breslow-day tests, and logistic regressions were conducted. Results: 1001 ethnically diverse participants were interviewed (37% non-Hispanic White, 37% non-Hispanic Black, and 26% Hispanic). Respondents were predominantly female (69%) with a mean age of 66.9 (± 6.4) years. The majority were found to be at either moderate or high nutrition risk (78.7%). Domains of the DETERMINE Checklist that predicted either inadequate dietary intake or poor diet quality included social isolation, lower levels of educational attainment, food insecurity, limitations in activities of daily living (ADL), polypharmacy, or three or more alcoholic drinks per day. Of the participants who met the criteria as those who would benefit from ONS, less than 50% had reported consuming ONS in the past six months. Conclusion: Older community-dwelling adults living in an urban setting, especially those with social isolation, lower levels of education, food insecurity, limitations with ADLs, polypharmacy, and those reporting heavy alcohol intake represent a population who could benefit from consuming ONS. Efforts should be made towards further understanding these contextual factors and providing nutrition education along with an ONS intervention that could be beneficial to supplement dietary inadequacies in this population.