Malnutrition Disease Process Essay

Causes: There is a wide variety of causes of malnutrition. An elderly person with dementia may forget to eat or to buy food. Poverty may cause a lack of food or lack of nutritious food. People in third world countries often do not have access to healthy foods. Other causes may be alcoholism, excessive dieting, throat or mouth cancer, decreased mobility, malabsorption, dialysis, fistulas, corticosteroid or oral antibiotic use, hypermetabolism, burns, trauma, or a lack of oral intake for 5-10 days for a variety of reasons. Incidence: Incidence of malnutrition in America is low, thought to be as low as 10% nationwide. Death from malnutrition in our country is extremely rare. Worldwide death from malnutrition among children under age 5 is thought to be as high as 50%. Prognosis: Prognosis is very good for patients with malnutrition in America. Most incidents are temporary and are a result of another condition. The malnutrition is very treatable with food, nutritional supplements such as Ensure, or parental feedings depending on the cause.