SCREENING COMMUNITY-DWELLING ELDERS FOR NUTRITIONAL RISK - DETERMINING THE INFLUENCE OF RACE AND RESIDENCE

This investigation explores nutritional risk among Mo subgroups of old er adults: African American and geographically isolated elders (65 yea rs or older). Telephone interviews were conducted with a stratified ra ndom sample of 1,126 respondents and included a 10-item nutritional ri sk appraisal. Results indicated that over one half of the sample may b e considered to be at moderate or high nutritional risk, with African American and rural elders at disproportionately higher risk and rural Blacks at highest risk across a variety of indicators. The nutritional vulnerability of these groups may prompt practitioners to design and target services specifically for their needs, while also stimulating r esearch to improve our understanding of the factors that account for t hese differential risks.