Geriatric Nutritional Assessment and Treatment Frameworks

Abstract

Malnutrition is common in older adults in the community, nursing home, and hospital. Deficiencies in caloric and vitamin intake increase with age, functional impairment, and institutionalization, with resultant added risk of skin breakdown, illness, and death. Common contributory factors to undernutrition include polypharmacy, dementia, depression, oral health problems, and socioeconomic factors. Unintentional weight loss always warrants evaluation. Nutritional assessment includes a focused medical and social history, anthropometrics, selected biochemical andSince the original publication of the chapter in the first edition of Geriatric Gastroenterology (Springer), Kenneth Lloyd Minaker MD, co-author, has passed away; his contributions to the original chapter and the field of geriatrics have been invaluable