Idaho observing Malnutrition Awareness Week thanks in part to UI researcher

A University of Idaho nutrition researcher and the Idaho Commission on Aging have successfully promoted Malnutrition Awareness Week that is being observed in the state this week, according to a UI news release.

Yimin Chen, an assistant professor specializing in human milk research, applied for the designation this week on behalf of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), an organization devoted to advancing the science and practice of clinical nutrition and metabolism.

Malnutrition Awareness Week, which ASPEN established in 2012, is a multi-organizational effort to educate health care professionals about early detection and treatment of malnutrition, increase awareness about the importance of nutrition in patient recovery and educate consumers about the need to discuss their level of nutrition with health care professionals.

The designation is renewed annually, enabling the organization to keep the issue of malnutrition at the forefront of discussions among state lawmakers, potentially affecting how they vote on bills related to nutrition. Designations for 2023 were approved in 11 states, including Idaho, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Idaho also approved a Malnutrition Awareness Week in 2022.

Chen is a longtime ASPEN volunteer who has served on several of the organization’s committees and started its neonatal section. ASPEN wrote the proclamation Gov. Brad Little’s office recently adopted, which notes more than 2 million hospital stays annually result from malnutrition and that malnourished patients have triple the mortality rate compared with other hospitalized patients. The proclamation also emphasizes that screening, assessment, diagnoses and intervention are key to addressing the problem.

The Idaho Commission on Aging made a separate request for the state to adopt Malnutrition Awareness Week covering the same dates.

Chen and her colleagues with ASPEN will capitalize on the week as an opportunity to share messaging about malnutrition and dispel widely held myths on the subject. For example, it’s believed that emaciation is the best indicator of malnutrition, though malnourished people can often have a normal body weight and aren’t getting key nutrients.

Patients also may have a chronic disease, such as cancer or a gastrointestinal disease, preventing their body from taking in adequate nutrition, and their malnourishment is often left undiagnosed.