Assessment of the Nutritional Health Status of Rural Old People in District Saharanpur (U.P.)

Background- Older people in the developing India is more affected with various diseases like malnutrition and associated with low income society, poor eating patterns. Objective- The present study was carried out to assess the nutritional status of old people and percentage level of malnutrition among the people who were living in the rural areas of district Saharanpur. Materials and methods- This cross sectional study was done from July 2018 to Nov 2018 in the 05 villages of Nanauta block, district Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh India. The old people those over 60 years and above age in male and 58 years and above age in female who met the inclusion criteria participated in this study. A total of 50 old people were selected for this study. Nutritional status was assessed by MNA tool and 24 hour dietary recall method. Analysis of data was performed using Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Analysis for qualitative variables was done using Chi-Square test. Result- Most (62%) of older people belongs to 58-65 years of age. Majority of the aged were married (62%), all are living in joint families and majority of older people are illiterate (80%) and all the old people of low income group who are in this study are not employed they are dependent on labour work and any other, 48% were found to be malnourished and 30% were at risk of malnutrition, 98% older people are functionally independent. The association between nutritional status and older age group, female gender, dependent functional status, dependent financial status and inadequate calorie intake was found to be significant. The difference in the risk of occurrence of malnutrition between male and female was found statistically significant (χ2=7.6, P=0.02). Conclusion-The present findings reveal that low income group old people are suffered with malnutrition and females are more affected with malnutrition as compared to males due to poor eating habits and age factor