Weight Loss Prevention
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UNINTENTIONAL WEIGHT LOSS: A COMMON PROBLEM AMONG NURSING HOME RESIDENTS
For the past 10 years, we at the Borun Center have been devising and testing non-medical interventions to improve nutrition and prevent dehydration among nursing home residents, thereby helping to prevent unintentional weight loss among this vulnerable population. The impetus for our work derives from a substantial body of research that supports two conclusions:
- Undernutrition and dehydration are common problems among nursing home residents (1-5); and
- These problems are associated with unintentional weight loss and can lead to a host of other problems for older adults, including delayed wound healing, immune dysfunction, and increases in the rates of hospitalizations and death (6-10).
The many causes of weight loss, undernutrition, and dehydration in the frail elderly--depression, dementia, and reduced taste sensation, to name a few--suggest many possible solutions to these problems. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the amount and quality of feeding assistance provided to residents is possibly the most powerful determinant of their daily food and fluid intake (11-14). Thus, it makes sense to direct weight loss prevention efforts toward improving feeding assistance.
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