Australia: Our elderly go hungry




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Australia: Our elderly go hungry

By SIMON KEARNEY
Melbourne Herald Sun, July 13, 2003

Australia - One in three older people admitted to hospital are under-nourished, a parliamentary inquiry into ageing has heard.

Australia has a global reputation for healthy elderly citizens, but University of Newcastle academic Julie Byles warned more needs to be done to improve their diets.

"What we do not recognise is the inadequacy of nutrition among our older population," she said.

"Between 30 and 50 per cent admitted to hospital, depending on their condition and what ward they are being admitted to, will actually be under-nourished."

Associate Professor Byles said Australia should not be complacent about its good record looking after the elderly.

"We talked about Australia being No. 2 in terms of healthy ageing. That is great, but we have a problem with malnutrition among our older people," she said. "So nutrition is important."

In her submission to the inquiry, the director of Hunter Ageing Research at the University of Newcastle said people needed to see the difference between the issues of healthy ageing and aged care.

She said while aged care was an issue for people over 80, many people in their 60s and 70s were healthy and making an active contribution to society.

"This change recognises that most older people are highly independent and active, have an excellent quality of life, and contribute substantially to the quality of life of others and to the productivity of society as a whole," she said.

Mirroring comments by the Federal Government about helping older people to remain in the workforce, Professor Byles said employers needed to find new ways to give older people jobs.

"There is an urgent need to consider the barriers to continued employment for older workers, attitudes and retirement intentions of mid-aged workers, and attitudes and practices of employers," she said.

But the submission warned that any new attention given to older people should not be at the expense of young people.

"One of the challenges in economic planning for Australia's future will be to prevent an inversion of this situation, where older people have increasing power (including voting power due to strength of numbers) and wealth at the disadvantage of younger people," she said.