A Brief Intervention for Malnutrition among Older Adults: Stepping Up Your Nutrition

Matthew Lee Smith, Caroline D. Bergeron, Sue Lachenmayr, Leigh Ann Eagle and Judy R. Simon
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Matthew Lee Smith: Center for Population Health and Aging, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Caroline D. Bergeron: Center for Population Health and Aging, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Sue Lachenmayr: Maryland Living Well Center of Excellence, Salisbury, MD 21804, USA
Leigh Ann Eagle: Maryland Living Well Center of Excellence, Salisbury, MD 21804, USA
Judy R. Simon: Maryland Department of Aging, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Despite a multitude of nutritional risk factors among older adults, there is a lack of community-based programs and activities that screen for malnutrition and address modifiable risk among this vulnerable population. Given the known association of protein and fluid consumption with fall-related risk among older adults and the high prevalence of falls among Americans age 65 years and older each year, a brief intervention was created. Stepping Up Your Nutrition (SUYN) is a 2.5 h workshop developed through a public/private partnership to motivate older adults to reduce their malnutrition risk. The purposes of this naturalistic workshop dissemination were to: (1) describe the SUYN brief intervention; (2) identify participant characteristics associated with malnutrition risk; and (3) identify participant characteristics associated with subsequent participation in Stepping On (SO), an evidence-based fall prevention program. Data were analyzed from 429 SUYN participants, of which 38% ( n = 163) subsequently attended SO. As measured by the SCREEN II ® , high and moderate malnutrition risk scores were reported among approximately 71% and 20% of SUYN participants, respectively. Of the SUYN participants with high malnutrition risk, a significantly larger proportion attended a subsequent SO workshop (79.1%) compared to SUYN participants who did not proceed to SO (65.8%) (χ 2 = 8.73, p = 0.013). Findings suggest SUYN may help to identify malnutrition risk among community-dwelling older adults and link them to needed services like evidence-based programs. Efforts are needed to expand the delivery infrastructure of SUYN to reach more at-risk older adults.

Keywords: malnutrition; nutrition risk; falls; fall prevention; intervention; older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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