Mental health and number of illnesses are predictors of nutritional risk in elderly persons.

Data from a sample of elders (N = 240) in their 60s, 80s, and 100s indicated that nutritional risk was positively correlated with age (p < .05), ethnicity (p < .05), number of illnesses (p < .001), and poor mental health (p < .001). Regression analysis suggested that number of illnesses (p = .0001) and mental health (p = .0005) were the most significant predictors of nutritional risk and that these two variables explained 28.8% of the variance for the total sample. Somatic factors of mental health were significantly related to nutritional risk (p = .0001). Regression analyses for these age cohorts indicated that mental health was a highly significant predictor of nutritional risk for 80- to 89-year-olds (p = .004), particularly somatic aspects of mental health (p = .03). Although somatic factors were highly significant among centenarians (p = .005), overall mental health was not a predictor of nutritional risk in centenarians (p = .08). Number of illnesses was the primary predictor of nutritional risk among sexagenarians and octogenarians.