Malnutrition among the elderly

Classical nutritional deficiency diseases are exceedingly rare in the elderly in this country, while other diseases such as ischaemic heart disease, respiratory disease, arthritis, cerebro vascular accidents (strokes) and dementia are very common. Why then are doctors concerned about the nutritional state of the elderly in this country? The answer is twofold; first, because there remains a strong suspicion that suboptimal nutrition while not being sufficiently severe to cause overt deficiency disease frequently contributes to ill health in the elderly; and second, because while many of the diseases to which the elderly are subject are difficult to treat, nutritional deficiency is simple and cheap to correct.