More than half of emergency room patients aged 65 years and above are malnourished, a new study finds.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina Health Care. Researchers examined 138 adults age 65 and older who sought treatment in the emergency department at UNC Hospitals during an 8-week period. All were patients with no cognitive impairments, who were not critically ill and did not live in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility. using the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-Form (MNA-SF), researchers assessed each participants' nutrition status and was rated on a scale of 0 to 14. Malnutrition is defined as a score of 7 or lower while at risk for malnutrition is defined as a score from 8 to 11.
Researchers found that 16 percent were malnourished and most of these (77 percent) said they had not previously been diagnosed as malnourished. Sixty percent were found to be either malnourished or at risk for malnutrition.
"Malnutrition is known to be a common problem among older adults. What is surprising in our study is that most of the malnourished patients had never been told that they were malnourished," said Timothy F. Platts-Mills, assistant professor of emergency medicine in the UNC School of Medicine and senior author of the study, in a press statement. "Our findings suggest that identifying malnutrition among older emergency department patients and connecting these patients with a food program or other services may be an inexpensive way to help these patients."
"Older adults make more than 20 million visits to U.S. emergency departments each year," he continued. "Our results add to a growing body of evidence that more needs to be done to develop the capacity of emergency departments to address the underlying conditions that impact health for older adults, particularly for those with limited resources."
Researchers found no difference in malnutrition status across gender or education levels. However, this status was higher among patients that reported symptoms of depression, had difficulty eating or buying groceries by themselves.
The study was published online in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.
