Part 4: Assessment of nutritional status

-The nutritional status of an individual is often the result of many inter-

related factors.
- It is influenced by food intake , quantity , quality and physical heath.
-The purpose of nutritional assessment is:
+ To define dietary reference values.
+ To determine individual patients’ nutritional needs.
+ To develop heath care programs that meet the community needs which
are defined by the assessment.
- The wide range of individual nutrients, and the fact that nutritional status
are not easily to measurement.
- The various techniques that are used include:
• Clinical assessment
• Dietary assessment
• Measurement of anthropometric indices
• Functional assessment
• Laboratory-based techniques
1) Clinical assessment:
- It is an essential features of all nutritional surveys.
- It is the simplest and the most practical methods of ascertaining the
nutritional status.
- It utilizes a number of physical sign.
- General clinical examination , with special attention to organs like hair,
angles of the mouth,.. so on
- Detection of relevant signs help in establishing the nutritional diagnosis.
-Advantages:
+ Fast and easy to perform.
+ Inexpensive.
+ Non-invasive.
- Disadvantages:
+ Did not detect early cases.
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