Article: Weight change, nutritional risk and its determinants among cognitively intact and demented elderly Canadians

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 (beta=-1.23, p=0.04) predicted weight loss in ...