[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 161 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1346-E1347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING MALNUTRITION AWARENESS WEEK

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                          HON. NORMA J. TORRES

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 28, 2018

  Mrs. TORRES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize this week as 
Malnutrition Awareness Week.
  Every 60 seconds, 10 hospitalized patients with malnutrition go 
undiagnosed, with the majority of these individuals being older adults. 
Malnutrition among seniors and older adults can lead to a greater risk 
of chronic disease, frailty, disability and increases in healthcare 
costs.
  Malnutrition also disproportionately impacts minorities who are often 
managing comorbid chronic diseases. In my home district, 80 percent of 
the constituents I represent are of Hispanic background. It is of great 
concern to hear that malnutrition is more than twice as common among 
low-income older adult Latino households.
  We cannot advance malnutrition care and promote improved patient 
recovery if we do not align the identification of and interventions for 
malnutrition with healthcare quality incentive programs.
  The great news is that there are common-sense solutions that can 
close this gap in care now.
  We can first begin by measuring the scope of the problem. Sadly, we 
currently don't know the full extent of the malnutrition problems 
plaguing our senior population. To change this, we can add screening 
measures for malnutrition to the national health surveys of older 
adults and implement national key health indicators and Healthy People 
2030 goals for older Americans. Doing something as simple as adding 
malnutrition measures will help shape public health programs and better 
guide healthcare professionals as they address serious health 
conditions.
  Another simple change we can make is adding older adult malnutrition 
to national dietary guidelines.
  We cannot expect older adults and their families to take steps to 
address malnutrition if we do not give them the tools to identify the 
problem. We must meet older Americans half way so that families can 
make appropriate interventions for their unique conditions and 
circumstances. Therefore, I call on HHS and USDA to include dietary 
guidance for the prevention and treatment of older adult malnutrition 
and the closely aligned problem of age-related sarcopenia listed in the 
2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  Lastly, malnutrition should be interweaved into healthcare incentive 
programs. A patient's nutrition status is rarely evaluated and managed 
as individuals transition across care settings. I therefore urge the 
CMS to include malnutrition electronic clinical quality measures in 
Medicare quality programs as well as in measures related to 
malnutrition in care transition programs. This will help reduce 
hospital readmission rates and improve transitional care for seniors in 
the long run.
  Increasing awareness of nutrition's role on patient recovery and 
implementing these measurable changes will help educate healthcare 
professionals and families which will result in helping seniors live 
healthy and independent lives.

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