World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2020, 07(02), 285–293 World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews e-ISSN: 2581-9615, Cross Ref DOI: 10.30574/wjarr Journal homepage: https://www.wjarr.com  Corresponding author: Ilana Elman Grinberg Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Service of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. (R ESEARCH A RTICLE ) Are there relationships between basic tastes, age, gender and nutritional status in an elderly population? Ilana Elman Grinberg 1, * , Fabio Gazelato de Mello Franco 1 , Maria Elisabeth Machado Pinto-e-Silva 2 and Luciana Diniz Nagem Janot Matos 1 1 Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Service of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. 2 Nutrition Departmentt, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo. Publication history: Received on 13 August 2020; revised on 27 August 2020; accepted on 30 August 2020 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2020.7.2.0304 Abstract Due to a rise in number of elderly in the general population and their difficulties to feed themselves properly, a characterization of their sensibility to basic tastes could help to comprehend palatability and help overall nutritional counseling. The objectives of this study were to characterize the detection thresholds of the basic tastes in an elderly population regarding age, gender and nutritional status. The Threshold Sensibility test has been applied to detection of sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami basic tastes, using six different concentrations. Were applied the Mini Mental State Examination test, the Mini Nutritional Assessment and Body Mass Index calculation. The sample has been classified accordingly to the variable distribution rate and analyzed with a non-parametrical statistical method. Two hundred and eighty elderlies participated, between 60 and 97 years old, mostly females and overweight. MMSE evaluated according to schooling presenting the majority of the studied population normality and regarding the MNA 18% had any risk of malnutrition. The highest percentage of perception was for monosodium glutamate at least once in the solution offered. Findings pointed toward more preserved taste detection to salt and umami in this population and that there is no statistical power to relate basic tastes sensibility to gender or nutritional status. On an overall analysis, sensibility to sweet, salt and umami tastes get worse as they grow older regardless of gender. Changes in habits according to age should be further explored, may improve food acceptance and quality of meals consumed. Keywords: Taste detection; Threshold; Elderly; Nutritional status 1. Introduction The global population aged 60 or older totalized 962 million in 2017, which means that it has more than doubled the estimated number from the early 1980s. This number is expected to double again until 2050 when it is predicted to rise almost to 2.1 billion. For The United Nations the elderly population aged 80 and over will probably rise to more than the triple between 2017 and 2050 from 137 to 425 million. [1] Different kinds of diseases and feeding difficulties from many sources could cause impairment in the quality of their diet as well as in its balance, leading to malnutrition. The aging process itself will offer limitations in selection and ingestion of certain foods and will contribute to chewing process impairment as well as the loss of taste: Dysgeusia [2], and decreased taste perception. [3] The palate is defined as the capacity to recognize taste which is the response to the five basic stimuli: sweet (represented in this work through sucrose), salt (sodium chloride), sour (citric acid), bitter (caffeine) and umami (monosodium glutamate). The later known as the fifth basic taste is stimulated by substances as sodium glutamate and 5-