Malnutrition Underestimated

SEO Economic Research has examined the social cost of malnutrition for the Association of Dutch Infant and Dietetic Food Industries (VNFKD). The study, entitled ‘Malnutrition Underestimated’, shows that, in total, one in five hospital patients and one in five residents of nursing homes and residential care homes are malnourished. The overall social cost of malnutrition is estimated at 1.8 billion euros a year. It also emerges that illness-related malnutrition in the Netherlands causes some 400 deaths a year.