The Importance of Home Health Care Services and Malnutrition in Elderly

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy will likely make increasingly difficult to provide effective delivery of health services and meeting maintenance needs in future. For that reason it is necessary to take precautions in home health care services in elderly. Home health care include services offered to individuals and their families in order to maintain and improve health and functions of disabled, elderly and individuals with chronic diseases. Elderly who demand home health care are often with multiple morbidities and reduced functional and cognitive capacity, unable to provide self-care and dependent on home, bed or other people. All of these properties are directly related to elderly’s nutrition, also risk factors for malnutrition, defined as a geriatric syndrome, associated with reduced grip strength, depressive state, high prevalence of infection and poor clinical outcome. Consequently; it is necessary to monitor nutritional status routinely in elderly. In this review article, the importance of home health care services and malnutrition in elderly is discussed.