10 percent of nursing home residents become malnourished within half a year

Nursing home (NH) residents appear to be at a high risk of malnutrition, with more than 10 percent of healthy residents developing malnutrition within 6 months, a recent study has found.

Researchers reviewed 11,923 non-malnourished NH residents (median age 86.0 years, 68.1 percent women) who had participated in the nutritionDay-project between 2007 and 2018. Incident malnutrition was defined as weight loss of ≥10 percent between enrolment and follow-up or body mass index (BMI) <20 kg/m² at follow-up.

At the 6-month follow-up, 953 (8.0 percent) residents saw weight loss of ≥10 percent, while 586 (4.9 percent) had BMI <20 kg/m²; meanwhile, 290 (2.4 percent) participants had both. Overall, 1,249 residents satisfied the criteria for malnutrition at 6 months, yielding an incidence rate of 10.5 percent.

Multivariate generalized estimating equation models found 13 potential predictors of incident malnutrition. These included no lunch intake (odds ratio [OR], 2.79, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.56–4.98) or eating only a quarter (OR, 2.15, 95 percent CI, 1.56–2.97) or half (OR, 1.72, 95 percent CI, 1.40–2.11) of their lunch meal.

Participants in the lowest BMI quartile (OR, 1.86, 95 percent CI, 1.44–2.40) were likewise at an elevated risk of incident malnutrition, as were those in the 85–94-years age group (OR, 1.46, 95 percent CI, 1.05–2.03). Severe cognitive impairment (OR, 1.38, 95 percent CI, 1.04–1.84) and immobility (OR, 1.28, 95 percent CI, 1.00–1.62) also emerged as significant risk factors for malnutrition.