ORIGINAL ARTICLE National study of the nutritional status of Korean older adults with dementia who are living in long-term care settings Myonghwa PARK, 1 Jun-Ah SONG, 2 Mihyun LEE, 1 Hyun JEONG, 1 Soyeun LIM, 2 Haejung LEE, 3 Chun-Gill KIM, 4 Jeong S. KIM, 5 Kyung S. KIM, 6 Young W. LEE, 7 Young M. LIM, 8 Young S. PARK, 9 Jong C. YOON, 10 Ki W. KIM 11 and Gwi-Ryung S. HONG 12 1 College of Nursing, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 2 College of Nursing, Korea University, 11 Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Seoul National University and 12 College of Nursing, Hanyang University, Seoul, 3 College of Nursing, Pusan National University, Yangsan, 4 Division of Nursing, Hallym University, Chuncheon, 5 College of Nursing, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 6 Department of Nursing, Namseoul University, Cheonan, 7 Department of Nursing, Inha University, Incheon, 8 Department of Nursing, Yonsei University, Wonju, 9 Department of Nursing, Kyungbok University, Namyangju and 10 Department of Psychiatry, Gyeonggi Provincial Hospital for the Elderly, Yongin, South Korea Abstract Aim: To evaluate the nutritional status of older adults with dementia who were living in long-term care settings. Methods: As a secondary analysis, this study used the data from the Nationwide Survey on Dementia Care in Korea that was conducted between December 1, 2010, and August 31, 2011, which surveyed 3472 older adults with dementia, aged ≥60 years (mean age: 81.24 years), who were residing in 248 randomly selected long-term care settings in South Korea. Twenty-three different variables that related to the participants’ demographics, diseases, and functional and nutritional characteristics were selected. The nutritional status was assessed by using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Descriptive statistics, an ANOVA, and a chi-squared test were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean MNA score of the participants was 17.90. The malnutrition rate was 38.4% (n = 1333), with 54.7% (n = 1900) of the participants at risk for malnutrition. The largest population with malnutrition resided in long-term care hospitals (47.9%), followed by nursing homes (34.1%), and group homes (25.9%). Being older and female, while exhibiting higher cognitive impairment, more neuropsychiatric symptoms, higher functional dependency, and a higher number of disabilities, were associated with poor nutritional status. Conclusion: The nutritional status of older adults with dementia who were living in long-term care settings in South Korea was poor and associated with multiple factors. Paying special attention to recognizing, assessing, preventing, and treating malnutrition in this population is necessary. Key words: dementia, long-term care facility, nursing, nutrition, older persons. Correspondence: Jun-Ah Song, College of Nursing, Korea University, 145 Anamro Sungbukgu, Seoul 02841, South Korea. Email: jasong@korea.ac.kr Received 5 March 2017; accepted 6 November 2017. INTRODUCTION Nutritional status is a multidimensional concept that has a profound impact on the health and functional capacity of older adults. Malnutrition is defined as an inadequate nutritional status that is characterized by insufficient dietary intake, poor appetite, muscle wast- ing, and weight loss (Ahmed & Haboubi, 2010). Mal- nutrition puts older adults at increased risk of infection, falls, fractures, pressure ulcers, depression, and low psy- chological well-being (Muurinen, Savikko, Soini, Suo- minen, & Pitkälä, 2015; Watterson et al., 2009). In addition, malnutrition is a strong predictor of increased © 2018 Japan Academy of Nursing Science Japan Journal of Nursing Science (2018) doi:10.1111/jjns.12203