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Nutrition in the Nursing Home: Expectation vs Reality

Anu Garg, Kate L. Szymanski*, Ganesh P. Merugu

Background: Determine the nutritional value of the food provided to the average patient in the nursing home and compare to the guidelines for the age matched community dwelling individual.

Methods: We obtained weekly meal plans. Nutritional value of each meal was calculated from the USDA food composition database with reference to the supply company. The 3 nursing homes ranged in ownership and in star rating and averaged 120 beds per facility. Food companies were comparable.

Results: Patients received 1.58 cups of vegetables with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.31 daily. 1.26 cups of fruit (SD of 0.08) and 0.79 cups of dairy (SD 0.26) daily. Average of 5,308 mg of sodium (SD 770.4) daily. 474.08 mg of added sugar (SD 137.88) daily. Saturated fats were 10.86% (SD 0.01) of the calories.

Conclusion: Intake of fruits, dairy and vegetables was below recommended levels. Calories and sodium were above recommended values. Added sugar and saturated fats were within recommendations. Several changes can be made to improve nutrition in the nursing home to bring the nutrition closer to expectations in the average community dwelling adult values. We recommend further study concerning interventions.