Nutritional status and related factors in elderly nursing home residents: comparative cross-sectional study in migrants and native Germans.

Former guest workers in Germany who stayed on after retirement are now older than 70 years. Nursing homes (NH) are broadening their offer to meet specific requirements of this population. The nutritional status and related problems of the older ethnic minority group living in German NH has so far not been investigated. The aim of this study was, thus, to compare the nutritional situation of older migrants to that of native residents in two "multicultural" NH (cross-sectional study). All residents 65 years and older with a migration background were enrolled and compared to nonmigrants using frequency matching for age and gender. Nutritional status was assessed using body mass index (BMI; cut-off for undernourishment: BMI < 22 kg/m(2)) and calf circumference (CC; CC < 31 cm). Care staff completed a questionnaire on residents' health. Consecutive 3-day food records were evaluated to analyze the intake of energy, macro-, and micronutrients. Participants were n = 23 migrants (76 ± 6 years, 52% female) and n = 37 nonmigrants (78 ± 7 years, 59% female). Undernourishment was more prevalent in migrants according to BMI (39 vs. 11%; P < 0.05) and CC (57 vs. 22%; P < 0.05). Main nutritional problems in both groups were "loss of appetite" (56 vs. 19%; P < 0.05) and "refusal to eat" (56 vs. 25%; P < 0.05). Energy intake was low (6.4 ± 1.4, 6.8 ± 1.6 MJ/d). More than 50% of participants fell below recommended values for vitamin C, B1, B6, D, folate, calcium, and iron; 61% of the migrants had a low vitamin B12 intake. Migrant NH residents were more often undernourished than German NH residents.

Maternal perceptions of her child's body weight in infancy and early childhood and their relation to body weight status at age 7.

INTRODUCTION: Maternal perception of her child's weight status has been hypothesised to affect a child's weight development. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this analysis was to determine in how far the maternal weight perception of her child's weight at different ages is related to its future body weight status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Longitudinal data on body weight, height and skinfolds from the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study were used to determine the risk of being overweight at age 7. Complete data on anthropometry, maternal weight perception and confounding variables were available for 253 children. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Maternal weight perception assessments at age 6 months, 12 months, 2 years and 4 years of age were related to body weight status as well as changes in body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) and skinfold SDS between age at assessment and age 7. With respect to the risk of being overweight at age 7, no independent effect of maternal perception was found. When changes in anthropometric measures were considered, it could be observed that children whose weight was considered too low gained more weight until age 7, and those who were considered to be too heavy lost more weight as compared to the children whose weight was considered to be just right. Among infants aged 6 months who were above the 85th percentile, maternal misperception appeared to promote an unfavourable weight development. These latter results support the hypothesis that maternal weight perception might affect a child's weight development. CONCLUSION: As our data suggest, this effect might begin to operate already in infancy.