Abstract

Introduction: Normal aging is considered the harmonious senile development and decay of the tissues and the body organs. During the third age are develop significant nutrition problems. Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study is to highlight the effects of obesity and malnutrition in the health of elderly.

Material and review methods: The study material was based on recent articles, at least, the latest five-year related articles that were extracted mainly from the international database Medline and Hellenic Academic Libraries (HEAL-Link). Exclusion criterion of articles was the language, other than the Greek and English.

Results: Obesity and malnutrition are two major problems that afflict the elderly and according to the studies of obesity are increasing in ages 60-69 and 70-79 and only the people over 85 maintain a relatively constant weight. Furthermore, based on studies, malnutrition reaches almost 23% of the population with an average age of 80 years. The highest rate of malnutrition is found in institutions or nursing homes (50.5%) and less in the community (5.8%). Nearly one third of elderly patients admitted in to the hospital for any reason have malnutrition problems.

Conclusion: Proper nutrition is a basic concern for third age citizens because over the years some nutritional peculiarities may appear as obesity and malnutrition that can cause significant problems in the elderly health.