The balance between nutrient
intake and nutrient requirements.
• Describe the unique nutritional needs for various
developmental periods throughout the life cycle.
Aging Adult: increased risk for
undernutrition or over nutrition.
Decrease in energy because of loss of
lean body mass and an increase in fat
mass, protein, vitamins, and minerals
need to remain the same or increase.
Adulthood: growth and
nutrient need to be
stabilized.
Pregnancy/ lactation: sufficient calories,
protein, vitamins, and minerals must be
consumed. Iron, folate, and zinc are essential
for fetal growth, while the vitamins and
minerals are needed
Adolescence: Caloric and protein requirements increase for
demand of bone and muscle growth, calcium and iron
requirements increase.
Infant/children: Breast feeding is
recommended for the first year of life
because it is the ideal formulated to
promote normal growth and development
and builds natural immunity.
• Describe the role cultural
heritage and values may
play in an individual’s
nutritional intake.
Newly arriving immigrants at risk for nutrition intake. (e.g.
hypertension, diarrhea, lactose intolerance, osteomalacia (soft
bones), scurvy, and dental caries. Other factors: Lots of changes,
language barrier, culture diff, no known people, unfamiliar foods,
familiar foods are difficult to find, low income may limit ability to
access familiar foods.
• State the purposes of a
nutritional assessment.
They are noninvasive, inexpensive, and
easy to perform to asses’ individual
nutritional status and if they are at
any risks for weight loss, inadequate
food intake or recent illness.
• Describe the components of a nutritional
assessment. Discuss the strengths and limitations of
the methods used for collecting current dietary
intake.
24-hour recall: Easiest and most popular.
The individual or family member
completes a questionnaire or is
interviewed and asked about everything
eaten w/in the last 24 hours. Has potential
errors due to 1. Individual or family
member may not be able to recall the type
or amount of food eaten. 2. Intake within
the last 24 hours may be atypical of usual
intake. 3. Individual or family member
may alter the truth. 4. Snack items and
use of gravies, sauces and condiments
may be underreported.
Food Frequency: How many times
per day, week, or month an
individual eats particular food’s,
Errors: It doesn't always quantify
amount of intake and it relies on the
person’s memory .
Food Diary: Write down everything
consumed for a certain period of time.
Typically, three days, or two weekdays.
Most complete and most accurate.
Potential problems: noncompliance,
inaccurate recordings, atypical intake on
recording, and conscious alteration of diet
during recording period.
Direct Observations: Observation of
feeding and eating process can detect
problems not readily identified
through standard nutrition
interviews. Observing typical feeding
techniques by parent or caregiver
and interaction between individual
and caregiver can help assess failure
to thrive in children or unintentional
weight loss in older adults.
• Use anthropometric measures and
laboratory data to assess the nutritional
status of patients.
Derived weight measures, body
mass index, waist to hip ratio,
skinfold thickness, arm span or
total arm length.
• Use nutritional assessment in the provision
of health care and for health promotion.
To do a nutritional assessment you; 1. Obtain a health
history relevant to nutritional status. 2. Elicit dietary
history if indicated. 3. Inspect skin, hair, eyes, oral
cavity, nails, and musculoskeletal and neurologic
system for clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of
nutritional deficiencies. 4. Measure height, weight, BMI,
WC, and other anthropometric parameters as
indicated. 5. Review laboratory test. 6. Offer health
promotion teaching.
Key Terms
1. 24-hour recall, p. 184: The individual or
family member completes a questionnaire or
is interviewed and asked about everything
eaten within the last 24 hours.
2. Comprehensive nutritional assessment, p.
184: individuals that are at risk for nutritional
problems go through this screening which
includes a dietary history and clinical
information, physical examination for clinical
signs, anthropometric measures, and
laboratory test.
3. Direct observation, p. 184: Observation of
feeding and eating process can detect
problems not readily identified through
standard nutrition interviews.
4. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), p.
191: a tool that measures body composition;
body fat and lean body mass, also bone mineral
density.
5. Food diary, p. 184: Write down everything
consumed for a certain period of time.
6. Food frequency questionnaire, p. 184: How many times
per day, week, or month an individual eats particular
food’s,
7. Kwashiorkor, p. 194: Protein malnutrition
is caused by diets high in calories but little
or no protein.
8. Marasmus, p. 194: protein-calorie malnutrition is
caused by inadequate intake of protein and calories
or prolonged starvation.
9. Metabolic syndrome, p. 182: Increased cardiac risk
and is diagnosed when a person has 3 of the
following 5 biomarkers; elevated BP, increased fasting
plasma glucose, elevated triglycerides, increase waist
circumference, and low high-density lipoprotein
cholesterol.
10. Nutrition screening, p. 184: the first step in
assessing nutritional status.
11. Optimal nutrition status, p. 181: Achieved when
sufficient nutrients are consumed to support day to day
body needs and any increased metabolic demands caused
by growth, pregnancy, or illness.
12. Overnutrition, p. 181: Consumption of
nutrients, especially calories, sodium and fat, in
excess of body needs.
13. Percent usual body weight, p. 189: is calculated by taking
the current weight devided by the usual weight times by 100.
14. Sarcopenia, p. 183: Age related loss of muscle
mass
15. Sarcopenic obesity, p. 183: combined with an increase in body fat,
decrease in physical activity and decrease in protein intake with aging.
16. Undernutrition, p. 181: Nutritional reserves are depleted
and/or when nutrient intake is inadequate to meet day to
day needs or added metabolic demands.