Malnutrition: supplements and food fortification in the older population.

There is an important relationship between positive nutritional status, dietary intake and a healthy population. Lifelong adoption of healthy eating patterns is essential for life and can help reduce the risk of development of many illnesses. Malnutrition remains very prevalent in both developed and developing countries despite ongoing awareness campaigns. The consequences of malnutrition are broad-ranging and ultimately impact on quality of life, increase length of stay in hospital and overall; increase the risk of unsuccessful outcomes of treatment. The management of malnutrition requires using appropriate screening tools to identify malnutrition and access to a registered dietician-who are the experts in nutrition-who will provide dietary advice to improve dietary intake through conventional dietary means and if unsuccessful through artificial supplementation. Failure to acknowledge the risks of malnutrition can seriously impact on morbidity and mortality rates.