Deaths among Americans caused by malnutrition and hunger have increased 600% according to the Washington Post and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as reported by Andrew van Darn on Jan. 5, 2026, who finds that the increase is seen “across the board. Every state, every education level, every race, every gender.” One risk factor in particular is evident: “Americans 85 or older die of malnutrition at around 60 times the rate of the rest of the population, and such deaths are rising about twice as fast among that group.”
The Post article further explores the data, noting that malnutrition among the elderly is noticed and reported more than in past decades. In the past, emaciation and poor nutrition was taken for granted as a part of decline from other causes and not recorded as malnutrition. The Post examines how professional nutrition societies began promoting, a decade ago, better diagnosis by health professionals, to look for: “not just for weight loss, but also for factors such as muscle loss, loss of under-the-skin fat pads, fluid retention and simply not eating enough. They held awareness weeks, tons of trainings and — perhaps most.” The Post article reports, “As a rule of thumb, multiple experts told us that at least 1 in 5 hospital patients probably suffer from some kind of malnutrition. In 2010, about 3 percent were diagnosed with it. By 2018, it hit 9 percent.”
The Post further explores how the health system in America increasingly gives incentives for diagnosing malnutrition among the elderly. “We’ve seen very little growth in malnutrition deaths in hospitals in recent years. The increase has been sharpest at nursing homes and long-term care facilities, where some residents may arrive with nutrition issues, followed by deaths at home or hospice. Similarly, almost no patients who had an autopsy got malnutrition listed as a cause of death.”
More generally, malnutrition is measured among children via “growth monitoring”, at WIC Clinics, and in sample surveys that repeat over time called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or “NHANES”, which looks at physical, biochemical and dietary measures of children and adults. See: NHANES at CDC;
see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/29/why-are-malnutrition-deaths-soaring-america/;
and, the Malnutrition Care Score for IQR Quality Improvement Initiative
