People in nursing homes rely on the meals the home provides for meeting their nutritional needs, as well as for the opportunity that they provide to socialize. However, nursing homes sometimes have a difficult time meeting the nutritional needs of everyone in their care.
Nutrition Constraints in the Elderly
Many elderly people have special dietary needs due to medical conditions. These medical conditions might also make it difficult for them to eat. They may have difficulty chewing and swallowing, or may suffer from side effects from their medications, so they don't feel like eating or have difficulty keeping food down. Elderly people may not absorb vitamins and minerals as well as younger people, and often have less kidney function, requiring them to drink more water.
Nursing Home Nutrition Issues
Nursing homes need to provide a variety of healthy meals and snacks while still adhering to the dietary restrictions of the residents. Those who can't feed themselves need to be helped by the staff. Dehydration and weight loss due to under-nutrition are common problems that make adverse health outcomes more common for nursing home residents. To help prevent these problems, staff are supposed to report when residents eat 75 percent or less of their meals. However, staff are not always able to accurately judge the amount eaten, according to an article published in "American Family Physician" in 2000.
Potential Solutions
Guidelines can help staff identify residents who are at risk for malnutrition and dehydration and take the appropriate actions to minimize this risk. Examples include the "Watch Report Take Action" guides created by the Health Care Financing Administration and the The Individual Nutrition Rx, or INRx, assessment process. Some of the measures that may be needed include feeding assistance, increasing the nutrient content of meals, treating depression, fixing dentures that don't fit well and offering residents more options to entice them to eat more. Taking photographs of the plates given to residents before and after meals can help to improve estimations of the amount of food eaten.
Considerations
With as many as 85 percent of nursing home residents being malnourished to some extent, according to a 2006 article published in the "Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly," nursing homes need to work with residents to identify the obstacles that are keeping them from eating enough and identify possible solutions. However, this can be difficult, given the number of residents involved.
References
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; HCFA Launches National Campaign to Train Nursing Home Workers to Prevent Weight Loss, Dehydration Among Residents; May 14, 2007
- Atlanta Legal Aid Society; Food and Nutrition Issues In Nursing Homes; Aug. 27, 2004
- "Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly"; Improving Nutrition Care for Nursing Home Residents Using the INRx Process; Neva L. Crogan, Ph.D., et al.; 2006
- "Food and Nutrition for Healthier Aging"; Food and Nutrition in Nursing Homes; Victoria Hammer Castellanos; Fall 2004
- "American Family Physician"; Nutritional Intake in Nursing Home Residents; Grace Brooke Huffman, M.D.; Aug. 1, 2000
