STARVING TO DEATH
Malnutrition is killing one person nearly every three days
ARECORD number of people are dying from malnutrition, alarming figures have shown. Data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that 102 people in England and Wales died from the condition in 2017.
That is the highest figure seen since at least 2001, when modern records begin.
Malnutrition is a condition that occurs when a person’s diet doesn’t contain the right amount of nutrients.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines a person as being malnourished if they have a BMI of less than 18.5, have suffered unintentional weight loss of more than 10% in the past three to six months, or have a BMI of less than 20 and unintentional weight loss of more than 5% in the past three to six months.
Prolonged malnutrition can have an adverse - and deadly - effect on the body, and can cause things like organ failure, strokes, and cancers.
According to the World Health Organisation, around 45% of deaths in children under the age of five are linked to undernutrition, and combating malnutrition in all its forms is one of the greatest global health challenges. A further 471 people in England and Wales had “malnutrition” mentioned on their death certificates, meaning the condition was a contributory or underlying factor in their death. For example, this would be the case if a patient died from complications of stomach cancer because they weren’t getting enough nutrients.
The data does not show the ages of those who died from the condition, although the NHS advises that elderly people in particular are at risk of malnutrition.
In fact, the UK’s Malnutrition Taskforce estimates that 1.3 million pensioners suffer from malnutrition.
Myer Glickman, head of health statistician at the ONS, said: “Evidence on time trends in deaths involving malnutrition is inconclusive, but there has been an increase over time in the number of patients admitted to hospital while already malnourished. “This may suggest that malnutrition is increasingly prevalent in the community, possibly associated with the ageing of the population and an increase in long-term chronic diseases. “Analysis of the death certificates shows that malnutrition usually accompanies several other diagnoses.”