Nutrition and health-related risk factors could be identified through the
implementation of the nutrition preventive strategies, such as nutrition screening,
for the Chinese elderly population who are at high risk of malnutrition. Efficacious
culturally sensitive nutrition assessment tools and nutrition screening tools hold the
most essential value to assess the nutritional health status among the Chinese
elderly. A standardized nutrition screening tool, the DETERMINE Checklist, has
been used to determine the nutritional health risk status among the elderly but not
the Chinese elderly. Focus group research developed cultural appropriate dietary
assessment tools, the food inventory list and Chinese food photos, to evaluate the
adequacy of food consumption. A case study used the Nutrition and Health Related
Questionnaire to evaluate the efficacy of the standardized DETERMINE Checklist.
The Nutrition and Health Related Questionnaire included a dietary assessment
method, the 24-hour dietary recall, and the modified DETERMINE Checklist was
developed from the integrated questions of the standardized DETERMINE
Checklist and Level I Screen. The efficacy of the standardized checklist, the sensitivity and specificity, among fifty-eight Chinese elderly age 70 or older, was
evaluated through the comparison of the adequacy of food consumption and the
identification of the nutritional health risk status. Results showed that the majority
(95%) of the Chinese elderly participants had inadequate food consumption as
measured by the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid. The standardized DETERMINE
Checklist was not sensitive (40%-60%) or specific (63.6%-46.1%) in evaluating the
nutritional health risk status among this population. The conclusion from this study
was the modified DETERMINE Checklist designed for this study included
questions with a single perspective in assessing the inadequacy of food
consumption and the physical inability, to identify the level of severity on the
nutritional health risk status better than the standardized DETERMINE Checklist.
The research prototype model provided a base assessment process of the nutritional
health risk status for the minority Chinese elderly. Complex interactions between
acculturation, language competency, accessibility of cultural food, and
socioeconomic factors related to the nutritional health risk status are needed for
further qualitative research investigations
