For this Assignment, you need to complete the following:
Discuss your case studies cultural background
Describe how cultural and economic issues affect how your client makes food choices
Nutritional
Health Assessment of Mary, an Elderly Woman with Dementia
Allow me to
introduce you to Mary, an 82-year-old African American female residing in a
small urban apartment. Mary is 5’3” tall and weighs 170 pounds, which means she
has a BMI of 30. 1, categorizing her as an obese person. She has been diagnosed
with moderate dementia, and while she is still living independently, she is
having increasing difficulty in managing her activities of daily living,
including shopping and preparing food that is healthy for her and others.
Mary’s daily diet
consists of having sugary cereal with whole milk followed by buttered toast in
the morning. Again, at mid-morning, she takes a few cookies and sweetened
coffee to replenish her energy. For lunch, she usually nukes frozen food,
primarily rich in salt and poor in vitamins and minerals, and drink soda. In
the evening, Mary may have a piece of cake or candy while watching the
television. Evenings have simple meals such as takeaways, fried chicken served
with mashed potatoes and gravy, and a bar of ice cream for supper. At other times
of the day, she eats a small bag of chips before bed.
From the
assessment checklist, the following tools will be used to determine Mary’s
health and nutritional status. Appropriate tools to use while assessing her for
this purpose could be the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) since she may be
malnourished or at risk of being underweight (Holvoet et al., 2020). As for further evaluation, it
is suggested that a 24-hour dietary recall be conducted to consider Mary’s
dietary intake and possibly identify nutrient deficiencies. Her weight status
will be ascertained using Body Mass Index (BMI). In contrast, her nutritional
status, as well as mental health, can be assessed with the Geriatric Depression
Scale (GDS) (Brañez-Condorena et al., 2021). Assessing blood sugar, lipid
profile, renal function, liver function, and vitamin D levels will evidence
metabolic dysfunction. These tools will give a holistic overview of Mary’s
state of nutrition and cover most of her health needs. Moreover, the tools
would help establish a good intercession plan for Mary.
