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Target Audience: Clinicians who care for patients with advanced dementia
Declining oral intake — resulting from both difficulty in eating and loss of desire to eat — is an inevitable part of the natural progression of advanced dementia; it often is addressed by inserting a feeding tube (usually, a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy [PEG] tube). A new position statement from the AGS addresses this issue.
The AGS does not recommend tube feeding for older adults with advanced dementia. Caregivers should create individualized hand-feeding approaches, and should recognize that tube feeding usually does not improve survival, comfort, or function in these patients.
Surroga…