Nutrition to aid wound healing in the aging adult by Julie Richards, MS, RDN, LDN, Mary Litchford, PhD, RDN, LDN, and Joyce Pittman, PhD, ANP-BC, FNP-BC, CWOCN, FAAN

Advanced age is commonly identified as a risk factor for delayed wound healing-yet age in and of itself is not a risk for failure to heal. It is the multiple health conditions, or comorbidities, affecting many older people that present a risk to healing. Even so, aging is associated with chronic wounds and impaired wound healing. With the over-60 age group predicted to nearly double as a proportion of the global population in the decades to come, from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050, chronic wounds will affect many more people worldwide. Many factors can hinder healing-including diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, vascular disease, infection and poor lifestyle choices-thus increasing the risk of a chronic wound. Although often overlooked ..., good nutrition is fundamental to the healing process.