If “adult failure to thrive” is sometimes a license to disregard, it can also be an invitation to endlessly, fruitlessly intervene. “I hate the term.

In 2002, adult failure to thrive and debility together accounted for 9% of the top 20 principal diagnoses. Ten years later, these two diagnoses were the first and third most commonly reported ...

When failure to thrive has a connection to problems at home, your doctor may consult social services. Hospital care, including the use of feeding tubes , can provide extra nourishment in severe cases.

Before long, adult “failure to thrive” had become an official diagnosis and a research priority for the Institute of Medicine. Like a virus jumping from species to species, it had made the ...

Decline among older people in isolation is called “adult failure to thrive.” Experts have warned for years about the dangers of social isolation. COVID-19 put the issue into focus.