Abstract

Introduction: The Mediterranean diet is one of the most complete and adequate to maintain a correct nutritional status. In older adults, because of the physiological changes typical of old age, there is evidence of a change in their diet, increasing cardiovascular risk and altering their nutritional status.Objective: To analyze adherence to the Mediterranean diet and its association with nutritional status and cardiovas-cular risk in non-institutionalized older adults.Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study in non-institutionalized older adults in Chile. Nutritional status was determined by BMI, cardiovascular risk was determined by waist circumference/height ratio. To determine adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MDI), the ID-Chile test was used, which contains 22 questions, evalu-ating the frequency of consumption of 14 food groups. For statistical analysis, the p value was calculated using Pearson's chi square. The level of significance was estab-lished at 5% (p<0.05). Results: 61% of the participants were women, an average age of 72.13 years, with a greater representation of obesity and overweight (31.15%). 39% of the participants were men, with an average age of 72.33 years and mostly with normal weight or overweight (35.89%). Significant differences were observed between men and women considering weight (p<0.052). No significant relationship was observed with vari-ables such as age, BMI, adherence to the Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular risk. A significant relationship was ob-served when comparing adherence to the Mediterranean diet with nutritional status (p<0.027) and cardiovascular risk (p<0.032).Conclusion: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is a fac-tor associated with better nutritional status and reduced car-diovascular risk in the elderly population. It is important to massify the food consumption of this lifestyle to improve the quality of life of older adults.