Malnutrition in older Australians is a major concern and is often overlooked. It can have significant effects on health, wellbeing and quality of life. As people age, a range of things can increase the risk of malnutrition like:
- reduced appetite
- difficulty chewing or swallowing
- chronic illness
- social isolation.
Malnutrition can:
- increase the risk of falls and infections
- affect immunity and wound healing
- lead to extended hospital stays.
Proactive and regular malnutrition screening is crucial for older people to detect, prevent and treat malnutrition as early as possible. Malnutrition screening is a simple, quick and effective way to identify people at risk of malnutrition. There are malnutrition screening tools that are validated for use in Australian aged care settings. Providers need to work out which malnutrition screening tool will be best for them, considering their processes and consulting with health professionals. These tools can help:
- detect the early signs of malnutrition
- make timely interventions
- understand when there needs to be an allied health referral
- provide guidance for ongoing monitoring, including when and how often to re-screen.
Successful practices in malnutrition screening
Some aged care services are using best practice in malnutrition screening. They’re using structured protocols and collaborative strategies to create successful outcomes, such as:
- Consulting allied health in processes and policies
A service showed thorough malnutrition screening by engaging their dietitian when developing malnutrition screening policies and processes. Using the Mini Nutritional Assessment and its flow chart for follow up, they referred residents to allied health professionals for personalised nutrition assessments when at risk of malnutrition. They also continued monitoring residents through electronic food and fluid charts with enough detail for their dietitian to use to tailor nutrition support strategies. - Supporting training and upskilling
Another service supported their staff with extra training to understand malnutrition and using validated tools to do malnutrition screening. They also collaborated with their dietitians to improve the food service and achieve better nutrition for their residents. The service was then able to educate catering staff on specific strategies that improved the nutrition of the food they were providing. - Engagement in malnutrition research
One service took part in a study focusing on the factors that contribute to malnutrition. This included structured exercises and nutrition interventions aimed at improving residents’ mobility, cognition and overall nutrition.
Effective malnutrition screening is important to support quality care for people receiving aged care. Best practice includes structured screening processes, collaboration with a multidisciplinary team and personalised assessments and interventions.
More information
- Food, nutrition and dining: a reflection on practice PowerPoint template for providers and Food, nutrition and dining stand-up discussion notes for providers. These resources have suggestions for group learning that provider learning and development staff and managers can use during training and stand-up meetings.
- Webinars – The dining experience and consumer choice and Supporting people with dementia to eat and drink well.
- Goal planning tool – a planning document for providers to improve food, dining, nutrition, and choice for people receiving care.
- Residential aged care food services – This discussion paper explores contemporary evidence on food services in residential aged care setting
