Malnutrition can cause people with Alzheimer’s disease to deteriorate

Many people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease are seeing their illness deteriorate because of bad nutrition and lack of care according to a report launched today.

The report launched by the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) this week also found one in 10 older people in the UK are at risk of malnutrition, that malnutrition leads to many older people being forced into care homes and that lack of standard measures means older people face a lottery of services throughout the UK, has been published as part of Community Meals Week (11-17 October 2010).

The NACC and the British Dietetic Association are now calling on the government to support a new Nutrition Standard which will provide guidelines to those providing community meals services.

The Alzheimer’s Society commented: ‘We all know how important a balanced diet is for maintaining good health. This is especially true for people with dementia. Malnutrition can have a serious impact on the symptoms of dementia and general well-being, potentially resulting in a person needing avoidable hospital admission or residential care earlier.
   
As well as being distressing for the person and their family, malnutrition and poor care create huge and unnecessary costs for already stretched health and social care systems. Supporting people to live well in the community can help relieve this financial burden and hugely improve quality of life. Good nutrition must be at the heart of this care.’