Article of the month – March 2019

For the month March the website committee selected the paper of Salminen KS, Suominen MH, Soini H, Kautiainen H, Savikko N, Saarela RKT, Muurinen S, Pitkala KH. Associations between Nutritional Status and Health-Related Quality of Life among Long-Term Care Residents in Helsinki. J Nutr Health Aging. 2019;23(5):474-478

The authors have conducted a cross-sectional study among 2160 older people residing in long-term care settings in Helsinki, Finland. This paper showed that nutritional status was significantly associated with health related quality of life among residents living in long-term care settings. Furthermore, residents had a higher chance of suffering from malnutrition, if they were more dependent in activities of daily living (ADL) functioning, suffered more often from dementia, had lower cognitive level, used less medications, and were eating more often inadequately.

Results of the study emphasize that nutrition is a very important element in maintaining health-related quality of life of older people living in long-term care settings.