A study led by Queensland University of Technology which found that almost half of aged care facility residents were malnourished has led to a successful intervention program.

The initial study, which was carried out in 2005, looked at 350 residents and found that 49.5 per cent of residents were malnourished, with 42.1 per cent classified as moderately malnourished and 6.4 per cent severely malnourished.

Queensland University of Technology Researcher Dr Liz Isenring (pictured) and the team found the nutritional health of aged care residents can be maintained with
neccesary intervention

It has since been followed up with an intervention study, which has yet to be published, but has demonstrated that nutritional health can be maintained with a co-ordinated nursing and nutrition intervention where nutritional status continued to decline.

Adjunct Associate Professor Judy Bauer, who is part of the research team, said that while she was not surprised by the initial findings of the study, it was still an appalling state of affairs.

"We see a lot of attention given to the prevalence of obesity, but the fact is that malnutrition in residential aged care facilities is a huge issue," she said.

"It can of course be caused by a number of factors such as the ageing process impacting on appetite, taste and smell, a decline in functional ability making feeding difficult, or swallowing problems, but also, of course, a lack of awareness and attention to nutrition care."

Professor Bauer said the second component of the study involved helping aged care facilities increase awareness of the nutritional needs of residents, and implement a nutrition action plan.

"The facilities should be congratulated because they have made a tremendous effort to improve nutrition care by nominating nutrition champions to increase staff awareness, ensuring residents are weighed regularly and improving overall management of nutrition care," she said.

"This has really resulted in better outcomes for all involved."

Professor Bauer said she hoped the study would help put this issue on the national agenda.

"It is clear that malnutrition is a common condition in older adults living in residential aged care in Australia," she said.

"Given Australia's rapidly ageing population, and the association between malnutrition and poorer quality of life and health outcomes, this finding emphasises the need to ensure that the nutritional care of the elderly is given more serious attention by care providers.

"There is a need to ensure that older adults are regularly screened for malnutrition risk and appropriate and timely nutrition care implemented.

"To be effective, a systematic multidisciplinary approach to the management of nutritional care in residential aged care facilities is essential, and staff education, support and adequate time allowance for the provision of daily care must be considered.

"There does need to be a form of reporting the nutritional status of residents at these facilities and the issue of malnutrition needs to be more out in the open," she said.

Professor Bauer's fellow researchers for the study were Dr Liz Isenring, Deanne Gaskill, Lucinda Black, Stacey Hassall and Fran Sanders. 

Media contact: Sharon Thompson, QUT media officer: 3138 4494 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it