Elderly Hospital Patients Not Well Fed
Posted on: Monday, 25 September 2006, 15:00 CDT
In a two-year study Australian researchers discovered that 58 percent of hospital patients over the age of 65 had problems eating.
University of Adelaide researchers found 31 percent left more than two-thirds of their meal and only 15 percent had eaten it all.
Co-authors Chenfan Xia and Helen McCutcheon said 50 percent of the patients had problems opening food, while 36 percent found it difficult to use cutlery and 32 percent had trouble adding seasoning.
Interruptions were also frequent. More than half of the patients had mealtimes interrupted by staff -- 92 percent by nurses and 19 percent by doctors.
The nutritional status of 60 percent of all older patients will deteriorate further while they are in hospital, with those who were malnourished in the first place suffering worst, and insufficient food is regarded as a major cause of the problem, said Xia.
This is an important issue, especially with a growing elderly population, because poor nutrition and malnourishment is linked to poor health, slow recovery and longer hospital stays.
The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Source: United Press International
Related Articles
- Surveyed Neurologists in Both the United States and Europe Indicate That a Once-Daily Transdermal Formulation of Levodopa Would Earn a 30 Percent Patient Share in Parkinson's Disease
- Less Than 2 Percent Of Hospitals Use Electronic Health Records
- Data from Phase 2 Study of Peramivir in Patients Hospitalized with Influenza Presented at the XI International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections
- A Drug That Improves Exercise Capacity By a Greater Percentage Than Tracleer Would Earn a 48 Percent Patient Share in the Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Market
- A Weight Neutral Oral Antidiabetic Drug Would Earn a 25 Percent Patient Share in the Type 2 Diabetes Drug Market
- A Drug With Efficacy Superior to That of Remicade at Inducing Closure and Healing of Fistulas Would Earn a 30 Percent Patient Share in the Crohn's Disease Drug Market
- AstraZeneca's Recentin Plus FOLFOX4 to Earn 10 Percent Patient Share in the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer By 2016
- AstraZeneca's Zactima to Earn Almost Five Percent Patient Share in the Treatment of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer By 2016
- Two Suspected Bird Flu Patients Hospitalized in Jakarta
- More Suspected Bird Flu Patients Hospitalized in Jakarta
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds