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Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
. 2001 Mar 1;92(2):143–149. doi: 10.1007/BF03404949

Weight Change, Nutritional Risk and Its Determinants Among Cognitively Intact and Demented Elderly Canadians

Bryna Shatenstein 116,316,✉, Marie-Jeanne Kergoat 116,216, Sylvie Nadon 116
PMCID: PMC6979814  PMID: 11338154

Abstract

Nutritional risk and its predictors were assessed by evaluating longitudinal changes in body weight using data collected from elderly community-dwelling and institutionalized Canadians who participated in both phases of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, CSHA (n=10,263). Change in body weight (% initial weight) was examined over a 5-year interval in 584 community and 237 institutionalized participants, and its predictors tested in multiple and logistic regression analyses. Average weight at CSHA-2 was 97% of initial weight at CSHA-1. Values were lower in those over 90 years and the demented. Increasing frailty on a 7-point scale (β=−1.23, p=0.04) predicted weight loss in institutional participants, as did difficulty in eating unaided (β=4.24, p<0.001) and reported loss of interest in life (β=2.22, p<0.001) among community subjects. Some 16% in institutions and 9% in the community were at moderate/severe nutritional risk, disproportionately represented by the oldest subjects and the demented. These analyses support the importance of assessing dietary intakes, anthropometrics, well-being and environmental predictors of aging in the elderly.

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