Congregate and Home-Delivered Meals

The Nutrition Screening Initiative, a multifaceted national health initiative led by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Dietetic Association, and the National Council on the Aging, has developed a screening tool to identify signs of malnutrition in older adults. Some of the risk factors are the following:

• • Eating too little or too much
• • Tooth or mouth problems that make it hard to eat
• • Poverty (not enough money to buy food)
• • Eating meals alone (social isolation)
• • Taking three or more different prescription or over-the-counter drugs a day
• • Involuntary weight loss/gain (ten pounds in the last six months)
• • Alcohol abuse (three or more drinks almost every day)
• • Acute/chronic illness or recent hospitalization