Identifying and managing patients with disease-related malnutrition in primary care
Intended for healthcare professionals
CPD    

Identifying and managing patients with disease-related malnutrition in primary care

Anne Holdoway Consultant dietitian, BMI Bath Clinic, Bath, Somerset, England, education officer for the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and chair of the UK Managing Adult Malnutrition in the Community panel

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise the significant clinical consequences and potential health and social care costs of untreated malnutrition

  • To be aware of a four-step approach to identifying and managing patients with disease-related malnutrition in primary care

  • To count towards revalidation as part of your 35 hours of CPD, or you may wish to write a reflective account (UK readers)

  • To contribute towards your professional development and local registration renewal requirements (non-UK readers)

Disease-related malnutrition can be challenging to treat. A disease, its treatment or the consequences of treatment can cause patients to experience a reduction in appetite and the desire to eat, resulting in an inability to consume sufficient food and drink to maintain or improve nutritional status. This article summarises a four-step approach to identifying and managing patients with disease-related malnutrition, and details how community and primary care nurses can effectively identify and manage the underlying causes of malnutrition and assist in advising on dietary modifications to enable enhanced patient outcomes.

Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2021.e1754

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

anneholdoway@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Holdoway A (2021) Identifying and managing patients with disease-related malnutrition in primary care. Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2021.e1754

Published online: 08 December 2021

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