Nutritional Vulnerability in Older Adults: A Continuum of Concerns.

A nutritionally vulnerable older adult has a reduced physical reserve that limits the ability to mount a vigorous recovery in the face of an acute health threat or stressor. Often this vulnerability contributes to more medical complications, longer hospital stays, and increased likelihood of nursing home admission. We have characterized in this review the etiology of nutritional vulnerability across the continuum of the community, hospital, and long term care settings. Frail older adults may become less vulnerable with strong, consistent, and individualized nutritional care. Interventions for the vulnerable older adult must take their nutritional needs into account to optimize resiliency in the face of the acute and/or chronic health challenges they will surely face in their life course.