Use of a nutrition-focused quality improvement program for community-living older adults at malnutrition risk is associated with better nutritional outcomes

A nutritionally focused program for community-living older adults resulted in improved health and well-being

“…As reported previously, the mean age of study participants was 74.1 ± 8.7 years, and 69.4% of the sample was female [27]. The overall mean number of comorbidities was 2.6 (±1.5) [21]. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were the most frequent diagnoses in the overall population (28.5%), followed by cancer (10.5%) and thromboembolic, hematological and endocrinological diseases (8.4%).…”

“…After QIP intervention, 324 participants (52.4%) had improvement in nutritional outcomes, as reported earlier [21]. Nutritional outcomes were measured by MNA-SF scores and calf circumference (a proxy for leg muscle mass) measures along with nutritionrelated anthropometric determinations of body weight and body mass index (BMI).…”

“…In the present report, we extended our prior observations from a nutritional QIP in Colombia [21] by analyzing additional outcomes for the community-living, older adults who were enrolled from an outpatient clinic in Bogot a. The current analysis quantified overall indicators of health and well-being (physical capabilities, cognitive function, affective disorder status, and QoL).…”

“…Based on an extensive review of Latin American studies (66 studies, 12 countries), results revealed that malnutrition or its risk was highly prevalent among patients admitted to hospital from the community, i.e., in the range of 40%e60% [18]. Global studies have shown benefits of identifying and treating malnutrition risk among community-living, older adults [7,19,20], but our recent research report presented results for the only study of this kind in a Latin American countrydColombia [21]. For that study, we applied a nutritionally focused Quality Improvement Program (QIP) over a 90 day interval; post-QIP results showed more favorable measures for nutrition-related parameters in older people, i.e., greater Mini Nutrition Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) scores, calf circumference (CC) increases, and better body mass index (BMI) values [21].…”

“…Global studies have shown benefits of identifying and treating malnutrition risk among community-living, older adults [7,19,20], but our recent research report presented results for the only study of this kind in a Latin American countrydColombia [21]. For that study, we applied a nutritionally focused Quality Improvement Program (QIP) over a 90 day interval; post-QIP results showed more favorable measures for nutrition-related parameters in older people, i.e., greater Mini Nutrition Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) scores, calf circumference (CC) increases, and better body mass index (BMI) values [21]. Similar use of nutritionally focused QIPs for care of hospitalized patients in the United States (US) led to improved health outcomes and lower costs of care [22,23].…”