ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1638285
This article is part of the Research TopicNutrition and Aging: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Address Nutritional Deficiencies and their Impact on Health OutcomesView all 3 articles
Malnutrition Awareness and Its Determinants among Chinese Older Adults: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey
Provisionally accepted
- Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou, China
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Background: Malnutrition is a prevalent but underrecognized health issue among older adults in China. Inadequate awareness may delay detection and intervention, especially in cognitively vulnerable populations. To assess the level of malnutrition awareness and its association with sociodemographic, cognitive, and nutritional factors in a representative sample of older Chinese adults. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 1227 individuals aged ≥60 years in Zhejiang Province. Malnutrition awareness was measured using a validated 7-item questionnaire.Cognitive status, nutritional risk, frailty, sarcopenia risk, and fall risk were assessed using standard tools. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of awareness.Results: Overall, 49.1% of participants demonstrated adequate malnutrition awareness. While most recognized general nutrition concepts (93.5%) and protein supplementation (92.7%), awareness of psychosocial risk factors (e.g., depression) was limited (41.7%). Higher awareness was significantly associated with higher education (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.23-1.55), cohabitation (OR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.13-1.56), and better cognitive function (p < 0.0001). Age, BMI, and frailty were not independent predictors. Conclusion: Malnutrition awareness among older Chinese adults remains suboptimal, particularly regarding psychological contributors. Targeted education strategies should be stratified by cognitive ability and living context to bridge awareness gaps and support national healthy aging initiatives.
Keywords: Geriatric Assessment, Malnutrition, nutrition education, older adults, Awareness
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhang, Wu, Yu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xujiao Chen, Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou, China
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