Nutritional Status and Impaired Functional Ability Among the Elderly

The present study examined the relationship among body composition, measures of self-rated health and activities of daily living in a group of free living elderly aged >60 years belonging to poor economic status. A sample of 147 subjects (82 males, 65 females) from Tirupati suburbs of Andhra Pradesh, India was selected. The subjects were divided into three age groups i.e. 60-69, 70-79 and >80 years for comparison. Mean height, weight, circumferences of waist and hip and waist hip ratio (WHR) were higher in males than females with no difference in body mass index (BMI). However, none of the anthropometric variables showed significant association with age. The majority of the subjects rated themselves as ‘poor’ or ‘fair’ self-rated health and this corresponds well with the lower mean values of anthropometry as well as activities of daily living, well-being and memory and cognitive function, impaired health aids and in general health. Polytomous logistic regression showed that subjects with the highest score on well-being compared to the lowest score rated 0.325 times (CI: 0.124, 0.851; P<0.05) good vs fair. The odds ratio was 0.519 times (CI: 0.206, 1.306) between good vs poor. Regarding BMI, subjects who rated their health as good/fair tended to have BMI in the normal range. In the poor self-rated health group a maximum of 55% of males and 47% of females were below 19 units of BMI, which was reflected in the increase in odds ratio of 1.361 in males and 1.134 in females between good vs poor health ratings. The findings reveal that well-being and BMI are related to self-reported health status.