Malnutrition in Residential Aged Care Facilities

The Aged Care Triage by Allied Health (ACTAH) project is an innovative model of care using health professional students to triage residents in aged care facilities according to their malnutrition risk and identify who needs further care. The ACTAH research team will conduct malnutrition assessment of residents and implement an evidence- based malnutrition intervention pathway for those who need it. This project will test a model with the potential to improve resident health without adding to the workload of residential aged care facility (RACF) staff.  

The ACTAH team wishes to acknowledge and thank ARIIA for the 12-month grant funding.  Smaller funds have also been obtained from the School of Social Sciences and Allied Health Griffith University, and the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University.   Together, the ACTAH team has been able to fast-track important research, broaden the reach to ensure more older Australians are cared for, and increase the collaboration across several aged care providers.

Across 2022 and 2023, 12 RACFs have participated in the ACTAH project with a total of approximately 790 residents screened and assessed for malnutrition using the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). See below table of the rates of malnutrition from this project. All RACF facility managers were advised of the outcome of screening within 2-4 weeks of assessment. This includes work completed prior to, and within ARIIA funding.

Rates of Malnutrition