ReviewCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2005
An approach to the management of unintentional weight loss in elderly people.
Review in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria to Assess the Independent Causal Roles of Aging and Medication in Frailty Progression: A Systematic Review.Drugs & aging · 2026Pooled it
- Observational Evidence for Unintentional Weight Loss in All-Cause Mortality and Major Cardiovascular Events: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Scientific reports · 2018Pooled it
- Weight loss as a predictor of cancer in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2018Pooled it
- Momordica charantia for type 2 diabetes mellitus.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- [Practical guideline for nutritional care in geriatric institutions].Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2009Guideline
- Weight Loss Associated with Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Individuals with Dementia in a National Healthcare System.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2015Trial
- Functional tooth unit, periodontal status, and association with weight change in older adults.Journal of periodontology · 2026Article
- Understanding Obesity in Individuals with Down Syndrome: Caregiver Perceptions, Awareness, and Motivation.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Food preferences and mortality risk in the prospective cohort of UK Biobank participants.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Development of a frailty screening tool using components from clinical parameters and frailty criteria for Thai community-dwelling older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Observational
- Dietary metabolomic determinants of frailty through inflammation in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.npj aging · 2026Article
- Association of annual percentage changes in anthropometric indices with all-cause mortality: a 14-year longitudinal study of older US adults.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- High-Accuracy Indoor Positioning and Smart Home Technologies for Assessing and Monitoring Frailty in Older Adults.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Assessment of frailty in patients with heart failure: A new Heart Failure Frailty Score developed by Delphi consensus.ESC heart failure · 2025Article
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- Article
- Association between bed-rest time, food intake, and constipation in older nursing home residents.Geriatrics & gerontology international · 2025Article
- Intestinal giardiasis and spirochetosis causing unintentional weight loss in a 40-year-old man.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
- Predicting the unseen: nutritional interventions as a key to combat frailty.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Unintentional weight loss, or the involuntary decline in total body weight over time, is common among elderly people who live at home. Weight loss in elderly people can have a deleterious effect on the ability to function and on quality of life and is associated with an increase in mortality over a 12-month period. A variety of physical, psychological and social conditions, along with age-related changes, can lead to weight loss, but there may be no identifiable cause in up to one-quarter of patients. We review the incidence and prevalence of weight loss in elderly patients, its impact on morbidity and mortality, the common causes of unintentional weight loss and a clinical approach to diagnosis. Screening tools to detect malnutrition are highlighted, and nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic strategies to minimize or reverse weight loss in older adults are discussed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.