Effectiveness of Screening for Malnutrition of the Elderly in the UK - Dissertation Example

There are definite factors which should rouse the primary health care organization to the reality that nutritional intake may be diminished and that vulnerability to malnutrition is enhanced. Vulnerable groups include older adults and those with chronic illnesses. Within the community setting, community and practice nurses interact with most of the highly vulnerable patients and should conduct screening. Several screening tools have been designed for use in the community. The majority are intended for older adults, but there are those intended to evaluate nutritional vulnerability in the general population.

These are explored and issues of content and reliability are recognized. Some issues related to nutritional screening are also examined.    Malnutrition remains a phenomenon that most people link with poor countries where sadly food and water scarcities are all too widespread. The idea that several of the most at-risk people in wealthier, highly industrialized society is enduring malnutrition is still something of a ‘forbidden’ issue (Miller 2008). Nonetheless, the reality is that malnutrition is a serious burden all over the UK.

Older adults are especially at risk of malnutrition; it is approximated that 10% of 65-year olds and above are malnourished (Ghosh 2005); yet other at-risk people can also be afflicted including individuals with chronic illness, those who are impoverished or are socially secluded and those who have currently been released from a long-term care institution. During the recent decade, it has become more and more evident that malnutrition is still unidentified, and hence usually untreated, in hospitalized patients.

This could be caused by lack of knowledge of medical outcomes, or the idea that nutritional screening on admission is insignificant (Lipley 2009). A current study has reported that roughly 40% of patients on admission to hospitals are malnourished (European Nutrition for Health Alliance 2005). Why does this take place? The apparent answer appears to be that as the health of the patient declines in the community there is a related decline in their nutritional condition, and this is still overlooked by the primary health care organization (Scott 2008).