A new report has revealed that elderly Australians are facing a malnourishment crisis in residential aged care facilities across the country.
For more than 20 years, the residential aged care sector, responsible for 193,000 people, has faced substantial scrutiny regarding its handling of the malnutrition crisis. In 2021, a national inquiry reported malnutrition rates as high as 68%.
The August 2024 Compliance Management Insights from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission shows that in 2023–24, complaints about food quality and variety ranked seven out of the top 10 complaints.
Of the 711 residents assessed across three Australian states, 40% were categorised as malnourished (34% mildly/moderately and 6% severely), supporting the Federal Government’s call for ‘urgent need of improvement’ in the quality and quantity of food provided in residential care.
Lead author, Marie-Claire O’Shea, from the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University, explained that accurate assessments of malnutrition prevalence are important given the double-edged ‘crisis’ facing society at this time: firstly, a fast-growing ageing population, and secondly, the sector reported to have “failed to meet the nutritional needs of people for whom they care.”
“With the Australian Government estimating the cost of malnutrition in RAC at approximately AUD $9 billion per annum, accurate, timely and real-time data are essential but not available and the aim of this paper was to provide an updated snapshot of the prevalence of malnutrition in Australian residential aged care facilities,” she said.
In the final analysis, residents had a mean age of 84 years, were predominantly female (63%), and had a mean BMI of 26.74 kg/m2.
Although weight loss can be an indicator of malnutrition, the Commission’s Chief Clinical Advisor and Geriatrician Dr Mandy Callary advised that a person could be malnourished or at risk of malnutrition without weight loss.
“This means it can go undetected, so providers need to make sure they are regularly using evidence-based screening tools to identify people who need more nutritional support. That is because if left untreated, malnourishment will harm a person’s health, wellbeing, and quality of life,” she said.
“The first prerequisite for providers is to have suitable systems in place to detect when a person is malnourished or is vulnerable to developing the condition.”
Lisa Peterson, the Deputy Commissioner of Sector Capability and Regulatory Strategy, said the commission had also conducted unannounced site visits at 608 services across the country last year, with a focus on food, nutrition and dining.
“Many of these site visits included a dietitian or speech pathologist from our Food, Nutrition and Dining Advisory Support Unit, and reassuringly, our visits showed that most providers are doing a good job,” Ms Peterson said.
“That’s not to say we did not find some problems. However, where we did, most providers were quick to make changes in response to our feedback, and where a provider is unwilling or unable to address risks or non-compliance, the commission can and will take further regulatory actions including monitoring, investigation, compliance, and enforcement actions.”
“We’re continuing our complaints resolution and monitoring activities because we know this is an important issue, and we believe there is more work to be done across the sector.
“The level of malnutrition identified in the research is completely unacceptable – but fixing the problem is more complex than just making sure that providers are making good-quality food available to their residents.”