Malnutrition

Malnutrition refers to deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients or impaired nutrient utilisation.

It occurs when people cannot consume the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Malnutrition is a global health concern affecting more than one billion people. It is caused by various factors including starvation, imbalanced diet, ageing, illnesses, and side effects of medical treatment. Causes are multi-factorial and interlinked, occurring alone or in combination. People with certain medical conditions, lower socio-economic status and certain demographics, such as the elderly, are at higher risk of malnutrition.

Malnutrition is more likely to occur in older age

There are many factors that may increase the risk of becoming malnourished in older age such as:

• Reduced ability to smell and taste food
• Poor absorption of nutrients
• Poor dentition
• Reduced appetite or loss of appetite
• Difficulties with preparing food

Malnutrition increases the risk of progressive decline in health, decreased physical strength, activity levels and even cognitive functions. At some point this may lead to losing the ability to continue the daily activities without help of another person.

Hospitalised elderly patients have a high prevalence of malnutrition. To identify individuals at risk, malnutrition should be routinely screened in all hospitalised and institutionalised patients such as in care homes and elderly homes to prevent malnutrition from progressing and improve nutritional status.

A nutrient rich diet can play a critical role in addressing malnutrition.

Disease-related malnutrition 

Disease-related malnutrition is a type of malnutrition when the inadequate nutrient intake is a result of a disease or its treatments. It persists in healthcare settings, despite great advances in medical care. Patients often experience their nutritional status worsening during hospital stays due to missing mealtimes, pre-surgery fasting, changes in appetite, and general unwellness.

Malnutrition is associated with higher hospitalisation as well as higher morbidity and mortality rates. Malnourished patients have slower recovery times that often results in longer hospital stays, as well as higher readmission rates after discharge. This can greatly increase medical costs for patients, and overall health burden for countries.

There is an opportunity to improve nutritional status with the small feeding windows in chronic disease by making high-density nutrition more palatable, and therefore making it easier for hospital-bound people to meet their dietary requirements. Proper dietary management provides both energy and immune support, which is especially important in individuals suffering from disease related malnutrition.

Concepts

Nutritional deficiencies should not be seen as inevitable consequence of older age or illnesses. There is an opportunity to improve nutritional status.

Oral nutritional supplements are Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP) designed and developed according to strict guidelines to provide energy and nutrient dense solutions in liquid or powdered form. They are developed based on scientific and clinical evidence with the levels and sources of nutrients modified to meet the special requirements of the patient group.

In addition to the technical challenges (feasibility, nutritional validation, shelf-life stability), it is crucial to develop products that are well tolerated and accepted by consumers in order to improve the total nutritional intake. 

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