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One-third of Canadian adults aged 55 or older are nutritionally in danger, doubtlessly resulting in elevated hospital stays, extra emergency visits and doctor consultations for potential infections, a brand new examine discovered.
The examine, Baseline diet threat as measured by SCREEN-8 predicts self-reported 12-month healthcare service use of older adults 3 years later, was revealed in Utilized Physiology, Vitamin, and Metabolism and is co-authored by Vanessa Trinca, a analysis affiliate in Kinesiology and Well being Sciences at Waterloo.
The College of Waterloo researchers assessed information from greater than 22,000 community-dwelling adults aged 55 and over from the Canadian Longitudinal Examine on Growing old. After an preliminary analysis, they adopted up with individuals as much as three years later to trace their health-service use over the earlier yr.
Researchers used the SCREEN-8 software (Seniors within the Neighborhood Danger Analysis for Consuming and Vitamin) to measure a person’s diet threat. They discovered that these with greater SCREEN-8 scores on the preliminary screening – indicating higher diet – had considerably decrease odds of reporting an in a single day hospital keep, visiting a hospital emergency room, or seeing a physician for an an infection when adopted up three years later.
“While these results make sense intuitively, they highlight how a straightforward and inexpensive tool can easily be used to potentially make a vast difference in improving health-care outcomes and costs,” stated Dr. Heather Keller, a professor within the Division of Kinesiology and Well being Sciences and Schlegel Analysis Chair in Vitamin and Growing old.
“SCREEN-8 should be a routine part of primary care practice, although it can be self-administered at home.”
Vitamin threat amongst older adults is a big concern, particularly amongst community-dwelling people, because it precedes malnutrition. The eight questions on SCREEN-8 collect details about weight change, urge for food, consuming challenges – corresponding to choking or problem swallowing – meal preparation behaviors and fruit, vegetable and fluid consumption.
The examine pattern included an equal variety of women and men, with a imply age of about 66 years. Most individuals have been residing with a associate and two-thirds of individuals surveyed had post-secondary levels. One of many examine’s limitations was that the folks sampled have been predominately extremely educated and white, that means that it’s not absolutely consultant of Canadians.
“Knowing who’s at risk nutritionally allows individuals the possibility of modifying behaviors to avert negative health outcomes,” Keller stated. “Further research can help determine how health-care practitioners can best triage and provide education, programming and services to offset high risk.”
Extra data:
Heather H. Keller et al, Baseline diet threat as measured by SCREEN-8 predicts self-reported 12-month healthcare service use of older adults 3 years later, Utilized Physiology, Vitamin, and Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1139/apnm-2024-0288
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One-third of older Canadians at dietary threat, examine finds (2025, March 4)
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