Abstract

SHAMAH-LEVY, Teresa et al. Health and nutrition status of older adults in Mexico: results of a national probabilistic survey. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2008, vol.50, n.5, pp.383-389. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE: To describe health and nutrition status in the elderly population in Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Information from 5 480 adults (>60 years) obtained by the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-2006) was analyzed. Frequencies, means, and confidence intervals at 95% were obtained and adjusted for design effect. RESULTS: Forty percent of the adults reported a lack of social security, 2% suffered from malnutrition, women were affected two times more than men by anemia (34.8 vs. 17%), more than 60% of the population were overweight and had obesity, approximately 25% suffered from hypertension according to the survey, and between 15 and 20% were diabetic. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that health and nutrition status among the Mexican elderly population is inadequate. This is a situation that urgently needs to be addressed in order to improve the quality of life of older adults in Mexico.

Keywords : aged; nutrition; health; surveys; Mexico.

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