Background: Nutritional risk is relatively common in community-dwelling older people.
Objective: To objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of individual dietary counseling as part of a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment on nutritional status among community-dwelling people aged 75 years or older.
Methods: Data were obtained from a subpopulation of participants in the population-based Geriatric Multidisciplinary Strategy for the Good Care of the Elderly (GeMS) intervention study in 2004 to 2007. In the present study, the population consist 173 persons at risk of malnutrition in the year 2005 in an intervention (n=84) and control group (n=89). Nutritional status, body weight, body mass index, serum albumin were performed at the beginning of the study and at a two-year follow-up. The nutritional screening was performed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) test.
Results: A increase in MNA scores (1.8 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7 to 2.0) and in serum albumin (0.8 g/L, 95% CI: 0.2 to 0.9 g/L) were a significant difference between the groups.
Conclusions: Nutritional intervention, even dietary counseling without nutritional supplements, may improve nutritional status.