Australian nutrition screening initiative

A new nutrition screening tool has recently been launched to help correct the neglect of the problem of malnutrition in elderly Australians. It is estimated that up to 30% of people over 60 years of age living independently in the community ave suffering from malnutrition. poor nutrition increases the time an older person requires to recover from acute illness, and bads to longer hospital stays, more complications and higher readmission rates. These factors all lend to a poor health outcome and increased health cave costs, The Australian Nutrition Screening Initiative is a checklist to be used to identify those elderly people,who may be at risk from malnutrition. This screening initiative represents the first national effort to raise tire awareness of the problem of malnutrition among elderly people by bringing together organisations with a common interest in this problem.