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A training tool to improve sensory capacity and nutritional status of
elderly people is developed
Aged between 50 and 95 years in Spain, Czech Republic, Greece and Italy are involved in this
European project
(Valencia, 20/07/2016) The GYMSEN European project has developed a training tool to
improve sensory capacity and the nutritional status of elderly people. This project, which
involved 6 organizations from 5 European countries, aims at the conservation of sensory
capabilities of older people, especially the senses of taste and smell, as well as maintaining
cognitive ability, in order to prevent and / or retarding functional and cognitive impairment.
This training tool offers various activities, depending on the profile of each participant in the
project, to exercise sensory abilities in the elderly and slow down the degeneration of the
sense of taste and mainly the sense of smell associated with lack of appetite in aging.
Project development
To keep shape the capacity of sensory perception of the elderly and improve their well-being
and quality of life, questionnaires have been run to more than one hundred elders with four
different profiles and aged between 50 and 95 years, taking into account their health, activity
level and dependence level.
Previously, depending on each case, their teachers, therapists or caregivers have completed a
course with which they have acquired the knowledge about the management of tools, which
allows them to evaluate more effectively the results of sensory activities undertaken with
these old people.
Specifically, in Spain these exercises were conducted with a group of healthy and active
seniors. In the Czech Republic, the project has focused on a group of healthy people, but with
lower intensity activity, while in Greece the target group are patients with Alzheimer's disease
and in Italy elderly people admitted to centers or residences.
During periods of 9 to 12 weeks, the elders selected for this project took part in the training
sessions while their sensory capacities were exposed to different stimuli with different levels
of difficulty in order to know their level of identification and recognition of smells, tastes and
aromas; the description of odours, aromas flavours and tastes. Part of the programme are
also olfactory and gustatory memory games. In addition, the description of memories is also
done after smell, taste and manipulates different foods.

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Keep in shape the capacity of the sensory perception of our elderly people might prevent or
retarding their functional and cognitive impairment
The aging is accompanied by psychological and physiological changes leading to a decrease or
loss of senses. Experts estimate that about 90% of patients older than 80 years present
appetite disorders associated with decreased physical needs and to perceive the tastes and
smells differently.
The decrease in the sensory capacities, which allows us to distinguishing the organoleptic
characteristics in the food, increases the risk of malnutrition and the nutritional deficiencies of
the elderly people, and it might induce consequences as the loss of the appetite (hiporexia)
infections or other alterations with serious consequences for the health.
The GYMSEN project was co-financed by the ERASMUS+ Project, which is an EU programme
for education, training, youth and sport.
More information at www.gymsen.eu and https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus_en.