Abstract:
common challenge amongst the elderly is that most of them are either frail or malnourished or both and little medical
attention is given to them. As a resultthe elderly become vulnerable and there is a need to pay more attention to their needs. This study
was mainly aimed at finding the prevalence of frailty and assessing nutritional status of the elderly in Thaba-Tseka. A cross sectional
study design was employed, where a purposive sample of 70 elderly was selected. Participants included 25 males and 45 females aged
from 65-95. Data collection on frailty and nutritional status of elderly was conducted through a frailty questionnaire, MNA_SF and
IDDS. Hand grip was taken to measure the maximum isometric strength of the hand. Findings revealed that there was a high
prevalence of frailty among the elderly which was 50% with 51% of the elderly having grip scores below average expected values that
ranged from 29. 5 kg to the lowest of 6.9 kg in age groups of 60-95 years. MNA results reported a high risk of malnutrition among the
elderly (43% at risk of malnutrition and 19% malnourished). The dietary patterns the of elderly was also reflected by the IDDS where
almost all (99%) the elderly in the study consumed monotonous, cereal based diets that lack diversity and 76% of them having a low
dietary diversity score. Most of the elderly werefrail and vulnerableto frailty ( >50%) and all those that were frail were also
malnourished. Findings have confirmed that grip strength decreases with age.
