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Background/objectives:The elderly constitute a population group with a high prevalence of non-communicable chronic diseases and high risk of malnutrition. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated to nutritional risk in free-living European elderly.Subjects/methods:The sample included 644 European citizens, free living in the community, aged 65 years or more. The sample was quota controlled for age groups (65-74, 75 years), gender (male/female) and living circumstances (living alone/with others). Logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with nutritional risk.Results:Several variables regarding socio-demographic characteristics, food choice, health status and the satisfaction with food-related life were included in the analysis. According to the recoded score of the 'Determine your nutritional health' (NSI checklist), 53% of the elderly were at nutritional risk. Nutritional risk was more likely to occur in elderly who considered that it was more important to choose foods 'easy to chew'; with lower average number of fruit and vegetables (F&V) intake episodes and lower score for general health. It was also found in non-married participants; those that did not identify changes in their appetite; and those that felt changes in health status. In this sample, the lowest nutritional risk was found for body mass index (BMI) around 18.5 kg/m2. Country of residence, gender and age were not found to have a significant effect on nutritional risk.Conclusions:Attention should be drawn to the living circumstances, changes in appetite or health, the general heath perception, F&V intake, choice of foods easy to chew and having a low or high BMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To examine the role of food composition data in Europe in four sectors, namely health, trade regulation and legislation, agriculture and the environment.Results:The need for further harmonization of data across Europe is clearly identified and evidenced from a number of previous successful European collaborations.Conclusions:Data on the nutritional composition of foods are essential for a broad spectrum of activities, including public health nutrition, research, the food industry and government policy development and implementation. With the expansion of the European Union and the concomitant increase in cross border trade and cooperation harmonizing food composition data becomes a more important issue than ever. Harmonization is not solely a technical issue, but also involves creating durable and sustainable structures to maintain the viability of the data. These are some of the issues currently being addressed by the European Food Information Resource Network of Excellence.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007) 61, 813–821; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602823; published online 6 June 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]