Focus - Aged Care Malnutrition and depression in older adults: Are these health issues too hard to tackle?
By Min-Lin (Winnie) Wu, Mary Courtney and Liz Isenring Malnutrition and depression are two major health concerns in older adults, and they are usually unrecognised and thus untreated.
quality of life (Engel et al 2011), and more importantly this is more the case in older adults who are at risk of hospital readmission.
In Australia, about 10 to 30% of older adults are at risk of malnutrition in the community setting, and the prevalence is even higher (40-70%) in the residential aged care setting (Dietitians Association of Australia 2009). Similarly, an estimated 8.2% of Australians aged 60 and older suffer from depressive symptoms (Pirkis et al 2009) in the community setting. Both malnutrition and depression have significant adverse effects on an individual’s wellbeing and
A study was conducted to assess the relationships between malnutrition and depression among older adults who were at risk of hospital re-admission in an acute tertiary hospital. The Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) was used to detect the risk of malnutrition, and the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) was employed to assess the nutrition status. Depression was measured using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). One hundred and fifty participants were assessed and 43 (27.7%) showed depressive symptoms. Among these 43 participants, 13 participants (30.2%) were malnourished. Results of
AN ESTIMATED 8.2% OF AUSTRALIANS AGED 60 AND OLDER SUFFER FROM DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
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