Malnutrition In Nursing Homes
27 Jul 2007
Washington - August 6,1999 - Malnutrition is a major problem in the nation's nursing homes. As many as 40 percent of the nation's 2 million nursing-home residents are malnourished, experts estimate. A coalition of health-care professionals and advocates is taking a first step to fight the situation.
The group plans to use educational materials to build the nutrition expertise of certified nursing assistants in the nation's 16,700 nursing homes to help them do a better job spotting such problems. It also hopes to provide this assistance for other nursing-home professionals. Nursing assistants are the health workers most in contact with residents and are likely to be aware of any eating difficulties.
Malnutrition in nursing homes is an especially vexing problem because many seniors there lose their appetites and must be coaxed to eat. When the nursing home employees do not recognize the occurrence and consequences of malnutrition the residents' health deteriorates.
It is well known to health experts that malnourished nursing-home residents are prone to more infections and diseases, that their injuries take longer to heal, that surgeries carry more risk and hospital stays are longer and more expensive.
In the end, those weakened by poor diet are more likely to die.
The campaign to attack malnutrition is headed by the Nutrition Screening Initiative and a broad coalition of health-care groups led by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Dietetic Association and National Council on Aging. The Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Health Care Financing Administration support the effort. The groups plan for the educational guides to lead nursing assistants and other nursing-home staff through steps to recognize and correct nutrition-related problems.
The effort was applauded Thursday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a long-term care advocate who sits on the Senate committee on aging.
"America is at ground zero in its fight against [nursing home] malnutrition," he said. "Today, we begin an effort that can improve the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of older Americans."
Wyden said it was "morally repugnant" that nursing home residents are malnourished, particularly in a country with abundant wealth and resources.
The Nutrition Care Alerts guide offered by the groups includes warning signs and action steps that can be taken by nurses, administrators and doctors to deal with four of the most common and "observable" malnutrition risk factors -- weight loss, dehydration, pressure ulcers and tube-feeding complications.
The estimate that 2 in 5 nursing home residents are malnourished came in a May study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. An earlier survey, sponsored by the Nutrition Screening Initiative in 1993, had a similar result.
