ASSESSING THE PREVALENCE OF MALNUTRITION WITH THE MINI NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT (MNA) IN A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF ELDERLY TAIWANESE

Objective: The study was to determine whether the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) could be used as a tool to effectively identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population. Design: The study was a part of a population-based multistage random sample survey. Setting: In-home face-to-face interviews. Participants: Randomly selected 1583 men and 1307 women, 65 years or older, in Taiwan. Measurements: Assessing nutritional risk status of participants with the Mini Nutritional Assessment. Results: The prevalence of malnutrition is 1.7% in elderly men and 2.4% in elderly women, 65 years or older. The proportion at risk of malnutrition is 13.1%. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the MNA to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition in the elderly in a nationally representative sample. Results suggest that the MNA can identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population. However, it appears that the functionality of the instrument can be improved by adapting population-specific anthropometric cutoff standards