GENERAL-PRACTITIONER AND PUBLIC-HEALTH NURSE VIEWS OF NUTRITIONAL RISK-FACTORS IN THE ELDERLY

A number of risk factors for malnutrition in the elderly have been ide ntified, but their relative importance has yet to be established, Gene ral practitioners and public health nurses were interviewed to elicit the relative weights placed on 6 major risk factors when assessing nut ritional risk in the elderly (living alone, recent bereavement, dentur e problems, mobility problems, psychiatric morbidity and multiple medi cation use). Participants rated risk for 35 hypothetical cases, descri bed by their status on the 6 risk factors. Multiple regression models of these judgments revealed a consistently high weight for psychiatric morbidity compared to the other factors, Little group variation in di agnostic policies was observed between general practitioners and publi c health nurses or by case gender, These policies may reflect the perc eption that psychiatric problems pervade many areas of life functionin g related to nutritional intake and are therefore more likely to cause malnutrition than other, more specific risk factors.