Page 384 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

NuTRITION IN THe eLDeRLy n 351

Although the Joint Commission requires on nutrition in older adults. Nurses have
nutrition screening for all patients within explored nutritional issues in older adults
24 hours of admission, most hospitals rely with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease N
on items extracted from nursing admission (Odencrants, ehnfors, & ehrenberg, 2008;
assessment, and these screens are not for- Odencrants, ehnfors, & Grobe, 2005), demen-
mally tested and validated in their setting tia (Lou, Dai, Huang, & yu, 2007), heart fail-
(Chima, Dietz-Seher, & Kushner-Benson, ure (Bennett, Welch, eckert, Oldridge, &
2008). A detailed literature review identified Murray, 2006; Lennie, Moser, Heo, Chung, &
21 tools used to assess nutrition in older adults Zambroski, 2006), post cardiac surgery
by nurses (Green & Watson, 2006). Nurses (DiMaria-Ghalili, 2002, 2004, 2008a, 2008b;
need to develop evidence-based guidelines DiMaria-Ghalili, Sullivan-Marx, & Compher,
on the most age-appropriate nutrition screens 2010), and in acute care (Chen, Tang, Wang, &
to use in practice. In older adults, the Mini- Huang, 2009; Poulsen, Rahm Hallberg, &
Nutritional Assessment is considered to be Schroll, 2006). In addition, nurse research-
one of the best tools to screen for malnutrition ers have contributed to an understanding
and risk of malnutrition across care settings of the nutritional status of elderly people
(DiMaria-Ghalili & Guenter, 2008). in community residential houses (Wikby,
A major issue with malnutrition preva- ek, & Christensson, 2006), residential aged
lence studies is that each study uses different care (Gaskill et al., 2008), homecare (Soini,
nutrition measures, so there is no common Routasalo, & Lauri, 2006), geriatric rehabilita-
denominator across studies. NutritionDay tion units (Soderhamn, Bachrach-Lindstrom,
(www.nutritionday.org) is an international & ek, 2007, 2008), and long-term care (Chen,
initiative, brought to the united States in 2009, Lin, Hwang, Wang, & Chwang, 2007).
in which hospitals and long-term care facili- Other researchers have focused on improv-
ties screen nutrition status on adult patients, ing nutrition outcomes in nursing home
including the elderly, with the same tools residents (Crogan & Alvine, 2006; Crogan,
to develop a cross-sectional malnutrition Alvine, & Pasvogel, 2006; Crogan & evans,
prevalence rate in participating institutions 2009) and are including a cultural perspec-
(Hiesmayr et al., 2009; Schindler et al., 2010; tive by understanding the nutritional needs
valentini et al., 2009). Although the screens of Hispanic nursing home residents (evans &
are not yet specific to the older adult, data Crogan, 2006). Contributions by nurse sci-
from this initiative can potentially impact the entists enrich the knowledge on nutrition
clinical nutrition care older adults receive in in community-dwelling older adults in
hospitals and long-term care facilities. the united States (Chen, Chang, Chyun, &
In the community, many older adults McCorkle, 2005; Lee, Lee, Kim, & Han,
receive home-delivered meals or go to con- 2009; Martin, Kayser-Jones, Stotts, Porter, &
gregate meal sites which are sponsored by Froelicher, 2005, 2007), China (Han, Li, &
funding from the Older Americans Act: Zheng, 2009), Korea (Jung & Shin, 2008),
Title III Nutrition Services Program. The Japan (Iizaka, Tadaka, & Sanada, 2008), and
Administration on Aging is formally eval- Taiwan (Hsieh, Sung, & Wan, 2010).
uating Title III programs in regard to the In addition to descriptive studies,
program’s impact on participants’ nutrition, nurses are developing and testing nutri-
health and well-being, socialization, and tion interventions in hip fracture patients
food insecurity, in addition to an examina- (Gunnarsson, Lonn, & Gunningberg, 2009;
tion of program implementation at the state Olofsson, Stenvall, Lundstrom, Svensson, &
and local levels (Colello, 2010). Gustafson, 2007), in frail community-dwell-
Nurse researchers continue to construct ing older adults (Odlund Olin, Koochek,
the theoretical and empirical perspectives Cederholm, & Ljungqvist, 2008), in rural