Detecting and managing undernutrition of older people in the community.

Undernutrition is an important public health issue which is frequently undetected and untreated. Disease and illness are the major causes of undernutrition in this country, and older people are a particularly vulnerable group. Effective screening is needed to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in older people and when this is established, action can then be taken to address the problem. Community nurses and the primary care team have a key role to play in making this happen. The recently developed Malnutrition Advisory Group (MAG) nutrition screening tool, for adults will help community staff and primary care staff to identify those older patients most at risk of malnutrition in the community. Routine nutrition screening of vulnerable individuals is the first stage in raising standards of nutrition care. Further improvements can be made through the development of appropriate nutritional guidelines, clinical risk management strategies provides opportunities to highlight the importance of nutrition care of older people.