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LSU
identifies community conditions related to
malnutrition deaths among older adults
BATON ROUGE – In a paper published in the
May 2010 issue of the scholarly journal Annals
of Epidemiology, two LSU researchers tackle
a problem seldom acknowledged in the United
States – the incidence of
malnutrition-related deaths among older
adults.
Matthew Lee, professor of sociology and
Provost Fellow in the Office of Research and
Economic Development and his co-author Emily
Berthelot, a doctoral candidate in
sociology, argue that while malnutrition
related deaths are primarily found among
infants in the developing world, such cases
are actually concentrated among older adults
in the United States.
In "Community Covariates of Malnutrition
Based Mortality Among Older Adults," Lee and
Berthelot analyze data from more than 3,100
counties in the United States on older adult
malnutrition morality using data from the
Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Census
on the social and economic characteristics
of these counties.
In statistical analyses, the researchers
found that two constructs are related to
high rates of older adult malnutrition death
rates across counties: socioeconomic and
physical disadvantages, and social
isolation.
Specifically, they found that where levels
of education are low among older adults,
poverty is high, rates of disability are
high, there is limited access to telephones
or where older adults are more likely to
live alone or be widowed, the rates of death
by malnutrition are significantly higher.
The authors suggest that poverty and related
factors are associated with malnutrition
death rates because poverty limits resources
to purchase food, causing people to buy
cheaper and hence less nutritious items.
Likewise, being socially isolated can be
harmful because social supports can affect
psychosocial well-being and foster healthier
behaviors.
"The fact that 2,000 to 3,000 people a year
die due to malnutrition-related causes in
the U.S. beckons the need for additional
research on this important threat to public
health," said Lee. "Our study, being the
first of its kind, will hopefully prompt
other researchers to begin examining this
problem more closely."
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