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 are suffering from malnutrition. Poor nutrition increases the time an older person requires to recover from acute illness, and leads to longer hospital stays, more complications and higher readmission rates. These factors all lead to a poor health outcome and increased health care 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 the awareness of the problem of malnutrition among elderly people by bringing together organisations with a common interest in this problem.