Prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition in a large population of elderly people at home

The prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) was examined in 1206 randomly selected elderly people aged 65 to 80 years living in their own homes. Nutritional assessment was based on weight loss, weight index, triceps skin fold, arm muscle circumference, serum albumin and prealbumin, and delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity (DCH) reaction. The prevalence of PEM was 5 per cent. If people with signs of inflammation were excluded, the prevalence of PEM was 3.5 per cent. When other nutritional indices, used by other authors among hospitalized patients, were applied to our sample prevalence values from 2.6 to 4.1 per cent were obtained. the prevalence was not related to sex or age. DCH increased the sensitivity of the screening method but causes of anergy other than PEM must be taken into account. It is concluded that PEM, in a degree shown to impair the prognosis at hospital, does occur among elderly people at home in an industrialized country.