The Prevalence of Frailty and Nutritional Status of the Elderly in Lesotho

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.