Overview
- The Collectif de lutte contre la dénutrition opens the awareness week by warning that roughly one million people over 65 in France are malnourished and that the condition is often missed.
- France’s health authority cites a key diagnostic marker for those 70 and older as a weight loss of at least 5% in one month or 10% over six months.
- Malnutrition primarily drives muscle loss that can lead to gait problems, falls, hospitalizations and even institutionalization, and it can occur at any body size including in people with obesity.
- Doctors point to reduced appetite after illness, loss of taste, dental problems and low mood as common triggers, with gradual, unrecognized weight loss flagged as a warning sign.
- Recommended responses include increasing protein intake, possible vitamin supplementation and adapted physical activity, while poverty limits access to protein-rich foods, with one in six food bank beneficiaries retired and a program supporting 23,000 people a year.