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Singapore’s silent crisis: Is grandpa eating well and enough?
Many of our seniors are at risk of malnourishment. Sometimes, the problem starts at the cafe.
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Many seniors who live alone eat irregularly, or make do with the simplest of meals.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Teo Yik Ying
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We could be seeing a worrying rise in malnutrition among older adults in Singapore, recent data from NHG Health suggests. Some four in 10 hospital patients aged 65 and above were found to be at risk in 2024, up from three in 10 just two years earlier.
Among patients seen by dietitians at the point of hospital discharge, two-thirds were identified as malnourished or at risk, compared with just over half of such patients in 2023. This trend extends beyond hospital wards, and findings from the community-based Diet and Healthy Aging Cohort Study showed that 22 per cent of adults aged 60 and above were at moderate to high risk of malnutrition.
