Chapter I

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Nutritional status is a measurement of how well the nutrients in your diet are meeting the physiologic needs of your body. Health care professionals like registered dietitians, nurse and physicians are trained to review and assess many different parameters to assess a persons nutritional status. They do this through the use of medical tests and other tools that provide dietary information. Nutritional status is the balance between the intake of nutrients by an organism and the expenditure of these in the process of growth, reproduction, and health maintenance. Because this process in highly complex and quite individualized, nutritional status assessment can be directed at a wide variety of aspects of nurtures. These ranges from nutrient levels in the body, to the products of their metabolism, and to the functional processes they regulate. Nutritional status can be measured for individuals as well as for populations.

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In children, growth charts have been developed to allow researches and clinicians to assess weight-and-height-for-age. For children, low height-for-age considered stunting, while low weight-for-height indicates wasting. Accurate measurement of individual nutritional status is required in clinical practice. Population measures are more important in research. They can be used to describe nutritional status of the group, to identify populations or population segments at risk for nutrition-related health consequences, and to evaluate interventions. The choice of nutritional status assessment method must be made mindful of the level at which one wants information, as will as of the validity and reliability of the method. All methods have error.