ABSTRACT
Geriatrics.................................................................................................... 244 14.5 Perspectives on the Awareness of Malnutrition in the Elderly
and on Nutritional Intervention................................................................. 245 References.............................................................................................................. 245
The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region includes 52 member states with 879 million people.1 It covers a wide spectrum of cultures and societies with different ethnic and religious backgrounds, different economic and health situations. During the last decades, in many of these countries changes in health status and disease patterns occurred with increasing economic wealth, followed by demographic changes. Life expectancy, for example, increased in the 25 countries of today’s European Union (EU-25) by nearly 3 years during the last 10 decades. In 2002, it amounted to 75 years for men and 81 years for women, and thus was higher than that in the U.S. but lower than that in Japan or Canada.2 The proportion of people age 65 years or older also increased and is expected to double between 1995 and 2050. It presently ranges from 11% in Ireland and Slowakia to 19% in Italy and
Greece and is anticipated to be more than 20% in 2015 in Italy, Greece, Germany, Finland, and Sweden. In the EU-25 more than 86 million people and in the WHO European Region more than 135 million people will then be older than 65 years.1
