MANUEL (2015)
Malnutrition in the Elderly
In 2015, the JPI HDHL launched the call “Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub”. The Knowledge Hub started in March 2016 and ended in September 2018.
Background
Numerous reports show that many people, especially in the elderly population, suffer from under- or malnutrition which as a consequence can worsen a person’s overall physical and health status.
In order to tackle the increasing problem of malnutrition in the elderly population research is needed to develop and test harmonized European standards for the definition and detection of malnutrition, to develop and validate reliable instruments for quick and easy screening of malnutrition, to improve existing or develop new medical nutrition therapies for chronic disease patients that do not compromise their nutritional status. Pilot projects of continuous data collection and feedback in different settings, from the community to the tertiary hospital, that have started as local initiatives need to be extended across Europe to increase validity and impact. Benchmarking between health care institutions will be possible with the evidence based selection of quality indicators of nutrition care. It is also imperative to gather information on the benefits achieved by specific measures to prevent and/or treat malnutrition. In this way, futile interventions shall be avoided and effective, evidence-based approaches can be proposed for implementation through the different levels of care.
Aim of the call
The main objective of the Joint Action “Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub” was to support transnational networking activities on:
- The definition of malnutrition in the elderly
- Integration and harmonisation of available valid and reliable screening instruments to enable identification of groups of elderly people that will benefit from nutrition interventions in different settings (e.g., home care, nursing homes, hospitals) and countries.
The purpose of the Knowledge Hub (KH) was to increase and facilitate transnational communication, cooperation and coordination between individual researchers, research groups and research organisations in order to build a productive and sustainable competence network in the field of malnutrition.
Participating countries
| Country | Funding Organisation |
|---|---|
| Austria | Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BMWFW) |
| Belgium * | Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) |
| Belgium * | Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) |
| France | The National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) |
| Germany | Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) represented by Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) |
| Ireland | Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) |
| The Netherlands | The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) |
| Spain | National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) |
| New Zealand |
* Did not fund research projects in this call
Funded Knowledge Hub
| Project | Coordinator |
|---|---|
| MaNuEL |
Prof. Dorothee Volkert, Prof. Marjolein Visser, |
More Information
Contact call Secretariat: ZonMw (NL), JPIHDHLprojects@zonmw.nl
