Reliability of Nutritional Screening Using DETERMINE Checklist for Elderly in Korean Rural Areas by Season

Moon, Hyun Kyung; Kong, Jung Eun

Abstract

It is very important to screen the elderly for nutritional risk, because nutritional status is a critical factor to maintain their health. Some nutrition checklists used in Korea for the elderly are from other countries. Reliability of those checklist in Korea is not studied enough. This survey was done for the elderly over 65-years-old who live in Hongcheon, An-dong, Dam-yang and Yeon-gi in Korea (subject; summer: 146, winter: 145) to study the reliability of DETERMINE checklist which is adopted widely in Korea. Using the score of DETERMINE checklist, the elderly were divided as high, middle and low risk groups. For nutritional assessment for those elderly, dietary assessment using 24 recall, anthropometry, biochemical assessment and health condition were used. Results for the checklist showed that percentage below EAR for energy intake and protein intake in winter were higher in the high risk group than other groups. The intakes of phosphorus and iron and most vitamins were below the DRI. The percentage of subjects with intake below DRI was highest in the high risk group. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values using the DETERMINE were calculated using 6 point as a cut-off point. Subjects were divided into two groups by MAR (MAR< 0.75:undernutrition, MAR< 0.75 : normal). Sensitivity recorded 49.4% and 34.3%, specificity did 61.9% and 65.4 and Positive predictive value did 62.1% and 46.0% each for summer and winter. Results of screening using DETERMINE Checklist were not matched with dietary assessment but not with anthropometric and biochemical measurement. In conclusion DETERMINE 'Checklist' is shown be a good screening tool for finding out risk groups for dietary intake in the elderly, It needs to verify reliability and validity through large-scale survey.