NUTRIENT INTAKE AND BIOCHEMICAL STATUS OF NONINSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY SUBJECTS IN NORWICH - COMPARISON WITH YOUNGER ADULTS AND ADOLESCENTSFROM THE SAME GENERAL COMMUNITY

The Department of Health (1999) has recently stated that 'Nutritional reviews concerning elderly people are especially constrained by lack o f data', and that much of the emphasis in the nutritional Literature h as been placed on the study of institutionalized, and often chronicall y ill, elderly subjects rather than the non-institutionalized elderly who form the majority of this population. The present study presents i nformation on the dietary intake and biochemical status of non-institu tionalized elderly subjects (68-73 and 74-90 years) and compares such data with those obtained for adult (20-64 Sears) and adolescent (13-14 years) populations Living within the same community. Nutrient intakes and appropriate biochemical measurements of nutrient status, performe d on fasting blood samples, were statistically examined and have been discussed in relation to potential age-related influences. The nutrien t intake of elderly subjects was on a par,vith adolescents of correspo nding sex but generally lower than that of adult counterparts. There w ere several significant differences in biochemical measurements of nut rient status between age groups. In general these did not suggest prog ressive age-related trends. However, there were significant suggestion s of age-related increases in whole-blood glutathione peroxidase (EC 1 .11.1.9) activity, serum ferritin, plasma cholesterol, LDL and triacyl glycerol concentrations and decreases in plasma HDL and ascorbic acid concentrations. The significance of these differences is discussed. An age-related difference (suggestive of a decline) in vitamin C status together with a difference (suggestive of an increase) in glutathione peroxidase activity may indicate an imbalance in the regulation of O-2 -derived free-radicals with ageing. These observations are worthy of a further study in the light of current thinking which relates the indu ction of a number of diseases to oxidative damage.