ABSTRACT

 Poor or unbalanced diets, alongside meal skipping are risk factors for several chronic diseases. This study was carried out to assess nutritional and health status of the older adults (60 years and above) in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling was used to select the study sample. Questionnaires were administered to 390 randomly selected respondents to elicit information on their socioeconomic data and dietary pattern. Their blood pressure measurements were also taken. Anthropometric indices of weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference were measured using standard methods while BMI, WHR were calculated and compared with their different standards. Data were analyzed with the computer programme, Statistical Package for Social Science (SSPS) for windows version 21 using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and significant difference was judged at p<0.05. The result showed that little below half (49.5%) of the respondents were within the age of 60-65 years. Little above half(54.9%) had 4-6 children living in their household while 59% had household size of 4-6, 26.7% were living with their spouse and other family members. About T1.1°/o sourced their income from store sales and 44.1% earned less than N18,000 monthly. Majority (71.5%) ate twice a day. Ill-health affected 55.4% ofthem with 32.8% suffering from hypertension; Little below half (49.7%) consumed snacks such as bread and soft drink (46.9%). Some (46.7%) skipped meals Fruits such as orange, paw paw, banana, apple, was consumed by them. Some (27.4%) of them preferred garri and soup while another (27.9%) ofthem preferred rice and beans. BMI classification showed that 25.6% were obese, 38.2% were overweight and 3.6% underweight while 32.6% of them had normal weight. About 52.8% and 22.6% were at risk of cardiovascular diseases based on their waist-hip-ratio and waist circumference classification respectively. Some (32.9%) of them were suffering from various degrees of hypertension. Therefore, finding of a higher prevalence of overweight /obesity and high blood pressure among older adults who were retired is not surprising and should be discouraged. Also, caregivers and relatives of old adults should be enlightened on the need to improve feeding pattern of the elderly through nutrition education.