List and discuss four methods commonly used to assess nutritional status of individuals

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

To prepare a nutrition assessment, a registered dietitian (or registered dietitian nutritionist), dietetic technician registered, or other trained health-care professional uses:
Historical information
Anthropometric measurements
Physical examinations
Laboratory tests

One step in evaluating nutrition status is to obtain information about a person's history with respect to health status, socioeconomic status, drug use, and diet. The health history reflects a person's medical record and may reveal a disease that interferes with the person's ability to eat or the body's use of nutrients. The person's family history of major diseases is also noteworthy, especially for conditions such as heart disease that have a genetic tendency to run in families. Economic circumstances may show a financial inability to buy foods or inadequate kitchen facilities in which to prepare them. Social factors such as marital status, ethnic background, and educational level also influence food choices and nutrition status. A drug history, including all prescribed and over-the-counter medications, may highlight possible interactions that lead to nutrient deficiencies.

A second technique that may help to reveal nutrition problems is taking anthropometric measures such as height and weight. The assessor compares a person's measurements with standards specific for gender and age or with previous measures on the same individual.

A third nutrition assessment technique is a physical examination looking for clues to poor nutrition status. Visual inspection of the hair, eyes, skin, posture, tongue, and fingernails can provide such clues. In addition, information gathered from an interview can help identify symptoms. The examination requires skill because many physical signs and symptoms reflect more than one nutrient deficiency or toxicity—or even nonnutrition conditions. Like the other assessment techniques, a physical examination alone does not yield firm conclusions. Instead, physical examinations reveal possible imbalances that must be confirmed by other assessment techniques, or they confirm results from other assessment measures.

A fourth way to detect a developing deficiency, imbalance, or toxicity is to take samples of blood or urine, analyze them in the laboratory, and compare the results with normal values for a similar population. Laboratory tests are most useful in uncovering early signs of malnutrition before symptoms appear. In addition, they can confirm suspicions raised by other assessment methods.