Almost Half of ED Patients from Assisted Living Malnourished or at Risk

​More than three-quarters of older adults presenting to an emergency department (ED)—including 44% of those coming from an assisted-living facility—were either malnourished or at risk of malnourishment, according to a study published online August 12, 2014, in Annals of Emergency Medicine. The authors examined 138 randomly selected cognitively intact older adults presenting to a southeastern United States ED from June to July 2013, finding 16% malnourished and an additional 60% at risk of malnourishment. Besides residing in an assisted-living facility, other risk factors for malnourishment included depression (52% of those studied), lack of transportation (38%), difficulty eating (38%), difficulty buying groceries (33%), and difficulty walking (28%).