Nutrition and Aging

It's common knowledge that nutrition is crucial in an individual's physical health, mental health, and overall quality of life. Without proper nutrition, our bodies are unable to work effectively and provide us with the fuel needed to energize our daily activities. Nutrition in older adults is often overlooked, especially in a facility such as a hospital or a SNF. Often those older adults who are in these types of settings have a more crucial need for proper nutrition because their bodies enter a stressed state which requires significantly more calories to be consumed since the patients' metabolism is working harder than it's used to. The key takeaways I made from this lecture was that proper nutrition early on, especially in settings such as acute care, is vital to a patient's recovery. Proper nutrition is just as important as the medications they are receiving and should be a top priority in patient education. Another takeaway was the reminder that we as (future) OT's can address proper nutrition within our scope of practice. Knowing the importance of proper nutrition and how the body can become hypermetabolic in a distressed state is something we should be able to address with the patient in order to not prolong their length of stay.

OT Interventions:

1. Individual Intervention - An intervention with an individual could be to educate them on the importance of proper nutrition and assist them, and/or their caregivers in keeping a food journal. By being able to write down what you eat, it allows the individual to be aware of and see how little food they are consuming each day. 
2. Group Intervention - A group OT intervention could include a group cooking class with a folder for the clients to take home of proper nutrition handouts, simple healthy recipes, and meal prep tips. This gives the group an opportunity to receive verbal education, experience cooking or prepping healthy food, and ask questions while also taking home handouts to increase the carryover to improve their nutrition habits.