United States: In recent years, the mortality rate has grown enough to impact life expectancy. Nutritional deficiency may not be the leading cause of death in the United States, but it surely has been a source of other complications that bring mortality to the doorsteps sooner.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, more than 21,000 people died from malnutrition, which is more than doubling over the past five years.
Also between 2021 and 2022, a spike of 20% in mortality has put nutritional deficiency among the top five factors with a negative impact on the life expectancy rate for 2022, CNN Health reported.
Who is vulnerable to nutritional deficiency?
More than half of the deaths due to nutritional deficiency in 2022, were among those 85 and older, as per CDC data. Therefore, the oldest Americans are most affected by poor nutrition.
However, across nearly all age groups, the deaths have increased. Although a decrease in mortality from COVID-19 was the main reason behind driving life expectancy up by more than a year in 2022. But generally, the common causes of death that contribute most to change in the life expectancy rate are the ones that affect younger people- which is congenital malformations, a key factor in 2022, and those that affect a large number of people.
Emily Ho, director of the Linus Pauling Institute, a research center at Oregon State University focused on the role of vitamins and essential minerals in health said, “It’s harder for a person who is malnourished to fight off a Covid-19 infection. When bodily systems don’t have the fuel they need to function properly, the risk of succumbing rises. Nutritional deficiencies are most common among older adults, which could have factored into the higher mortality rates from COVID-19″, CNN reported.
Ho also said, “As we get older, our immunity is something that starts to decline, not only because of age but also because of nutrient deficiencies that can truly contribute to the process”.
And the effect that the nutritional deficiency had on the life expectancy rate is relatively low, still, the findings should not be discounted- experts say. The negative impact of malnutrition is generally under-calculated.
What is good nutrition?
A healthy balance of macronutrients, such as carbohydrates and proteins, that are required by the body in large amounts to keep the bodily systems running and the vital micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals as per CNN report.
Emily Ho, director of the Linus Pauling Institute, a research center at Oregon State University focused on the role of vitamins and essential minerals in health said, “Lack of protein can cause a lot of your bodily systems to start to potentially shut down. On the other side, a lot of the systems that our micronutrients fuel are things that lead to resilience. So when we get low in various micronutrients, all those systems start to get compromised. That can eventually lead to death or malfunction”.
Why are older people more susceptible to nutritional deficiency?
As per experts, older people are more susceptible to nutritional deficiencies for a variety of reasons.
Kathleen Cameron, senior director of the National Council on Aging’s Center for Healthy Aging says, “There are many older adults that have chronic illnesses that impact their appetite – things like congestive heart failure, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease. Digestive diseases too that are common among older adults may also impact how their body absorbs nutrients”.
As many are also socially isolated, she further added, “They don’t want to cook for themselves and may not have access to transportation to go to the grocery store to buy nutritious foods.”
Experts say that the health of aging adults is a long-established concern and the death rate from nutritional deficiency had been rising long before the pandemic but the pandemic worsened many factors.
Ramsey Alwin, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging says, “There are 10,000 senior centers out there where a million older adults every day were going through the doors”, and further added that “When we visited some of our senior centers, we’ve heard that their congregate meals are only 50% back in terms of attendance because people are still wary, especially this respiratory season, about going out and being in those group settings. So I think we’re still unwinding some of that.”
According to the National Council on Aging, out of those older adults who are eligible for SNAP, the federal government’s nutritional assistance program, more than half are not actually enrolled.
The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture work together to upgrade and publish the dietary guidelines every five years. The recent publication includes discussions about specific needs and the healthiest balance for seniors, CNN Reported.
Does malnutrition always look skinny?
As per a CNN report, a malnourished person isn’t always frail or skinny. According to Ho, “In the US, we often have overnutrition and malnutrition in the same person, which is something that’s a little bit unique to us. There can be an overnutrition of empty calories that leads to obesity, but the quality of diet that they have is low, so they’re malnourished when you look at the micronutrient content” and further added, “So the bodily systems are compromised, even though you’re not presenting with a wasting syndrome.”
Experts believe that a simple screening test related to nutrition that a primary care physician can use during annual wellness visits.
Ho mentioned that- taking a daily multivitamin is also “good insurance”, and further added, “Even people that are trying to eat healthy sometimes still have some of those shortfalls.”