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Gero Lueg,1 Rainer Wirth,1 Julia Kwiatkowski,1 Alexander Rösler,2 Martin Jäger,3 Ilse Gehrke,4 Dorothee Volkert,5 Maryam Pourhassan1 On behalf of the “Nutrition and Metabolism” of the German Geriatric Society (DGG) working group1Department of Geriatric Medicine, Marien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Herne, Germany; 2Department of Geriatrics, Bethesda Krankenhaus Bergedorf, Hamburg, Germany; 3Clinic for Geriatrics, Hüttenhospital, Dortmund, Germany; 4Clinic for Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Schwarzwald-Baar Klinikum, Donaueschingen, Germany; 5Institute for Biomedicine of Aging, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, GermanyCorrespondence: Maryam Pourhassan Department of Geriatric MedicineMarien Hospital Herne, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Hölkeskampring 40, Herne D- 44625, GermanyTel +49-2323-499-2416Fax +49-2323-499-2417Email maryam.pourhassan@ruhr-uni-bochum.deBackground: Studies focusing on self-perception of nutritional status in older hospitalized patients are lacking. We aimed to examine the self-perception of body weight and nutritional status among older hospitalized patients compared to their actual body weight and nutritional status based on medical assessment.Materials and Methods: This observational cross-sectional study investigated 197 older participants (mean age 82.2± 6.8 years, 61% women) who were consecutively admitted to the geriatric acute care ward. Body weight status and nutritional status were assessed using WHO-BMI classification and Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF), respectively. Self-perceived body weight status and nutritional status were assessed with a standardized questionnaire. A follow-up was performed with a short telephone interview after three months.Results: According to MNA-SF, 49% and 35% were at risk of malnutrition and malnourished, respectively. There was no agreement between self-perceived nutritional status and objective nutritional status according to MNA-SF (Kappa: 0.06). A slight agreement was found between subjective body weight status and objective body weight status according to WHO-BMI classification (Kappa: 0.19). A total of 184 patients completed the 3 months follow-up and additional 9 patients died during this time, of which 7 and 2 were malnourished and at risk of malnutrition according to MNA-SF, respectively. Of those who were malnourished and at risk of malnutrition based on MNA-SF and died during follow-up, 67.7% did not realize their malnutrition. Compared to the patients with normal nutritional status during hospitalization, malnourished patients based on MNA-SF had higher rates of unplanned hospital readmission and further weight loss and more often reported health deterioration and experienced death within three months after discharge.Conclusion: No agreement between self-perceived nutritional status and objective nutritional status among older hospitalized patients was found. Our study highlights the need to raise knowledge about the issue of malnutrition and increase awareness of health risks associated with malnutrition among older hospitalized patients.Keywords: body weight, geriatrics, malnutrition, older patients, self-perception

Rainer Wirth,1,2 Rainer Dziewas,3 Anne Marie Beck,4 Pere Clavé,5 Shaheen Hamdy,6 Hans Juergen Heppner,7,8 Susan Langmore,9 Andreas Herbert Leischker,10 Rosemary Martino,11 Petra Pluschinski,12 Alexander Rösler,13 Reza Shaker,14 Tobias Warnecke,3 Cornel Christian Sieber,2,15 Dorothee Volkert2 1Department for Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, St Marien-Hospital Borken, Borken, Germany; 2Institute for Biomedicine of Aging, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany; 3Department of Neurology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany; 4Department of Nutrition and Health, Faculty of Health and Technology, Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen, Denmark; 5Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de enfermadades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Hospital de Mataró, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Mataró, Spain; 6Centre for Gastrointestinal Sciences, Institute of Inflammation and Repair, University of Manchester, Salford Royal Hospital, Salford, UK; 7Department of Geriatrics, Witten- Herdecke University, 8Helios Clinic Schwelm, Schwelm, Germany; 9Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA; 10Department of Geriatrics, Alexianer Hospital Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany; 11Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; 12Department of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; 13Department of Geriatrics, Marien Hospital Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; 14Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA; 15Department of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, St John of God Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany Abstract: Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a highly prevalent and growing condition in the older population. Although OD may cause very severe complications, it is often not detected, explored, and treated. Older patients are frequently unaware of their swallowing dysfunction which is one of the reasons why the consequences of OD, ie, aspiration, dehydration, and malnutrition, are regularly not attributed to dysphagia. Older patients are particularly vulnerable to dysphagia because multiple age-related changes increase the risk of dysphagia. Physicians in charge of older patients should be aware that malnutrition, dehydration, and pneumonia are frequently caused by (unrecognized) dysphagia. The diagnosis is particularly difficult in the case of silent aspiration. In addition to numerous screening tools, videofluoroscopy was the traditional gold standard of diagnosing OD. Recently, the fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing is increasingly utilized because it has several advantages. Besides making a diagnosis, fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing is applied to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic maneuvers and texture modification of food and liquids. In addition to swallowing training and nutritional interventions, newer rehabilitation approaches of stimulation techniques are showing promise and may significantly impact future treatment strategies. Keywords: aspiration, dehydration, dysphagia, geriatric, malnutrition, older

Sabine Goisser,1 Wolfgang Kemmler,2 Simone Porzel,3 Dorothee Volkert,1 Cornel Christian Sieber,1,4 Leo Cornelius Bollheimer,1,4 Ellen Freiberger1 1Institute for Biomedicine of Aging (IBA), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nuremberg, 2Institute of Medical Physics (IMP), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, 3Nutricia GmbH, Danone Medical Nutrition, Erlangen, 4Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, St John of God Hospital (Barmherzige Brüder), Regensburg, Germany Abstract: One of the many threats to independent life is the age-related loss of muscle mass and muscle function commonly referred to as sarcopenia. Another important health risk in old age leading to functional decline is obesity. Obesity prevalence in older persons is increasing, and like sarcopenia, severe obesity has been consistently associated with several negative health outcomes, disabilities, falls, and mobility limitations. Both sarcopenia and obesity pose a health risk for older persons per se, but in combination, they synergistically increase the risk for negative health outcomes and an earlier onset of disability. This combination of sarcopenia and obesity is commonly referred to as sarcopenic obesity. The present narrative review reports the current knowledge on the effects of complex interventions containing nutrition and exercise interventions in community-dwelling older persons with sarcopenic obesity. To date, several complex interventions with different outcomes have been conducted and have shown promise in counteracting either sarcopenia or obesity, but only a few studies have addressed the complex syndrome of sarcopenic obesity. Strong evidence exists on exercise interventions in sarcopenia, especially on strength training, and for obese older persons, strength exercise in combination with a dietary weight loss intervention demonstrated positive effects on muscle function and body fat. The differences in study protocols and target populations make it impossible at the moment to extract data for a meta-analysis or give state-of-the-art recommendations based on reliable evidence. A conclusion that can be drawn from this narrative review is that more exercise programs containing strength and aerobic exercise in combination with dietary interventions including a supervised weight loss program and/or protein supplements should be conducted in order to investigate possible positive effects on sarcopenic obesity. Keywords: sarcopenia, obesity, mobility, nutrition, weight loss diets, exercise, review, function

For the diagnosis, prevention and therapy of malnutrition, it is important to estimate the energy and fluid requirements of an individual patient. To our knowledge, it is unknown how accurately medical doctors can estimate the energy and fluid requirements of patients in a clinical routine situation. Hence, we conducted the following survey. A written face-to-face survey about the energy and fluid requirements of and tube feeding and fluid recommendations for a typical patient was performed with 179 medical doctors. An estimation error of >15% was defined as relevant. The results revealed substantial variations in estimating the energy and fluid needs of the patient. A total of 25% of the participants underestimated the energy requirements, and 47% of the participants underestimated the fluid requirements. In addition, 68% of the participants recommended a daily dose of tube feeding that was < 85% of the reference value. A substantial proportion of medical doctors show a lack of knowledge concerning energy and fluid requirements, which demonstrates a need for better medical education with regard to nutrition. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2014) 68, 840-843;doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2014.94;published online 21 May 2014, INTRODUCTION Malnutrition is a common comorbidity in clinical medicine. (1) In affluent societies and in times when there is an increasing prevalence of obesity, health-care professionals are often not sensitive [...]