Malnutrition in care home residents with dementia

Objectives: To investigate the malnutrition prevalence in Dutch care home residents with dementia over the years. Secondly, to examine the relationship of malnutrition and dementia and the role of care dependency and co-morbidity within this relationship. Design: This study is a secondary analysis of data of the annual independent Dutch National Prevalence Measurement of Care Problems of Maastricht University. The design involves a cross-sectional, multicenter point prevalence measurement. Setting: Care homes. Participants: 75399 residents older than 65 years (4523 resident with dementia) participated over 5 years (2006-2010). Sixty organizations measured 4 times, 31 organizations 3 times, 68 organizations 2 times, 511 organizations 1 time. Measurements: A standardized questionnaire was used to register amongst others data of weight, height, nutritional intake, undesired weight loss, comorbidity, dementia, and care dependency. Results: The study was able to show that there is a significant decline in malnutrition prevalence in the group of non-demented residents over the years (Non-demented group p