Nutrition and health in old age : the cross-sectional analysis of the findings of a survey made in 1972/3 of elderly people who had been studied in 1967/8 : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy.
Date:
1979
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Nutrition and health in old age : the cross-sectional analysis of the findings of a survey made in 1972/3 of elderly people who had been studied in 1967/8 : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    marginal and where non-nutritional disease produces signs and symptoms difficult to distinguish from those of deficiency. The difficulties were magnified when different clinicians used different criteria in making the diagnosis. | 1.5 Biochemical measurements were of less help than was expected in assessing mild degrees of nutrient deficiency, and this was chiefly because the normal range of these measurements is not known for people in the upper age groups. Doubt was expressed about the validity of some of the biochemical values which have been used as indicators of marginal nutrition. To apply to the elderly standards which have been derived for young people is not necessarily justified. | 1.6 The 1967/68 survey was designed as a cross-sectional study. There are however fundamental limitations to the kind of information that cross- sectional studies can give. The aim of the study was not only to assess the amount of malnutrition among the participants but also to investigate ageing as a biological process, and for this a longitudinal study seemed to be necessary. 1.7. Ideally, longitudinal studies, in which measurements are repeated on the same individuals, should perhaps start at birth and continue throughout the whole of life but shorter studies can be made of those parts of the life span during which changes are rapid, for example, early childhood, adolescence and senescence. Such studies are particularly needed in the elderly since there is little information about age-related changes in individuals towards the end of life and predictions about the age-structure of the United Kingdom population indicate a growth in the number of very elderly people. By 1986 there will be approximatelv 24% more people aged over 75 years than there are now, and by 1991, if present trends continue, there will be over 40% more people aged 85 years (Figure 1.1). 1.8 A decision was therefore made to resurvey in 1972/73 the sample of men and women who had been studied in 1967/68. In this report we present the analysis of the findings of the 1972/73 survey on a cross-sectional basis. The longitudinal aspects of the study will be presented in a second report to be published in due course. Tables and figures which are relevant to the text are situated at the end of each chapter of the report.