Malnutrition in Australian aged care residents

Malnutrition is a significant clinical and public health problem, both in Australia and internationally. The majority of studies on malnutrition in aged care have been conducted in hospital settings, and to a lesser extent in residential aged care facilities. Therefore the prevalence of malnutrition was determined in a sample of older people living in two residential aged care facilities in the ACT region. In September 2011, the Subjective Global Assessment tool was used to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in 57 aged care residents. In this population, 65% of the residents were women and 33% of residents were classified as high care. 67% of the residents were classified as well nourished, 26% as moderately malnourished and 7% and severely malnourished. Prevalence of malnutrition was higher for patients receiving high level care. The prevalence of malnutrition found in this study is consistent with data reported in recent Australian and international studies for residential aged care. With the proportion of Australians over the age of 65 increasing, and with older adults being the largest group of nutritionally vulnerable people in Australia, it is imperative that the issue of malnutrition does not go unrecognised.