Screening community-dwelling elders for nutritional risk: Determining the influence of race and residence

This investigation explores nutritional risk among two subgroups of older adults: African American and geographically isolated elders (65 years or older). Telephone interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 1,126 respondents and included a 10-item nutritional risk appraisal. Results indicated that over one half of the sample may be considered to be at moderate or high nutritional risk, with African American and rural elders at disproportionately higher risk and rural Blacks at highest risk across a variety of indicators. The nutritional vulnerability of these groups may prompt practitioners to design and target services specifically for their needs, while also stimulating research to improve our understanding of the factors that account for these differential risks.