Nutritional status and eating habits of elderly people in Piauí: available data in SISVAN Web

Abstract

The evaluation of the nutritional status of the elderly allows the appropriate nutritional intervention avoiding or minimizing health problems that cause damage on their functional capacity. From this perspective, the study presented in this article aimed to verify the nutritional status and eating habits of the elderly population of the state of Piauí, Brazil. We used public access data available in the SISVAN Web regarding the nutritional evaluation carried out from 2014 to 2018. The data revealed an increase in the prevalence of overweight in that population and a reduction of the number of elderly with low weight. When evaluated by sex, women presented higher percentages of overweight in all those years. The food consumption profile showed that the majority of the eldery population consumes fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables and beans and only a few of participants of the sample consumed ultra-processed foods. Finally, the importance of the evaluation of the health of the population as a form of incentive to plan health actions is highlighted, so that the resources can be more competently allocated and the health care workers can act efficiently and effectively.