Taste disorders and malnutrition are both age-related conditions that, individually, may have negative consequences but which are also probably associated with each other, making the consequences even worse. This scoping review was performed to systematically map and synthesize the existing evidence on the association between taste disorders and malnutrition in older adults. Four electronic literature databases (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science) were searched. Title and abstract screening as well as full-text screening was performed by 2 authors independently. Studies of older adults (aged ≥65 years) in diverse settings that described the association between taste disorders and malnutrition were included based on the Population Concept Context framework. A standardized data extraction template enabled the recording of information about general study characteristics, methods used to assess taste disorders and malnutrition, and estimates of associations. The literature search yielded 1060 results; after an update search, 40 articles were included in this scoping review. Most of these studies were performed in acute care (50%) or community settings (32.5%). Most applied subjective methods alone to assess taste (47.5%) and used different combinations of parameters to assess malnutrition (67.5%). Most of the studies that applied subjective methods found associations between taste disorders and nutritional intake, and malnutrition risk and unintentional weight loss. Studies that used objective methods to assess taste were only occasionally able to detect an association between taste and malnutrition parameters. Our results suggest subjective and objective assessments may capture different aspects of taste dysfunction. Research in this field is important to increase in-depth knowledge about the complex associations between taste disorders and malnutrition parameters. A greater awareness of the relevance of taste disorders in clinical practice is warranted and may lead to improvements in the identification and subsequent treatment of these disorders.
Bauer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.