Nutrition and Aging

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One of my favorite things about occupational therapy is that therapists look at the whole person and all of the activities a person does on a daily basis.  Nutrition and ensuring that someone receives the food and calories they need every day is an important activity for many people in the hospital and the ICU especially.  The guest speaker was fantastic today, and I learned a great amount about the role of registered dieticians in hospital settings and the ways occupational therapists can address nutrition through our interventions. 

One of the most important takeaway points for me today was understanding the increased calorie and protein needs many older adults have after they have been in a recumbent position for several days.  Their body can be in a hypermetabolic or hypercatabolic state as they recover from illnesses or injuries causing their body to break down protein resulting in muscle atrophy and generalized weakness. They need a significant amount of calories (sometimes 4000 or more) to have the proper nutrients to regain muscle mass again to be able to perform their ADLs and other occupations. 

One intervention occupational therapists can use with an individual if they have decreased strength and malnutrition is to incorporate their supplements into a therapy session.  This session could be focused on fine motor skills and improving their ability to manipulate bottle caps and grip objects.  This intervention would also address feeding and educating them on role nutrition has in their recovery process. 

Occupational therapists could emphasize proper nutrition when they are working in the community in home health settings by asking questions regarding patients’ abilities to receive and eat nutritious food.  Many older adults no longer cook or might not have access to nutritious food to keep them healthy.  Feeding is an important ADL and meal preparation is an important IADL for older adults to remain healthy and prevent disease or disability.  If older adults in home health settings do not cook or have access to healthy meals, occupational therapists can provide interventions by pointing them to proper resources such as meals on wheels or grocery delivery services and walk through this process of ordering food with them so that they can access food resources they need and improve their nutrition. 

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