"This is an important issue, especially with a growing elderly population, because poor nutrition and malnourishment is linked to poor health, slow recovery and longer hospital stays.

"However most of the research to date has been carried out in care homes, so little is known about the situation on hospital wards."

The researchers make a number or recommendations:

• Nutrition should be given a higher priority in ward routines and staff training.

• Food intake needs to be monitored in the same way as urine output and drugs. The study found that monitoring was very patchy and often only covered fluid intake.

• Many patients were put off by large portion sizes and the researchers suggest that serving smaller portions at more regular intervals or providing nutritious drinks between meals are two possible solutions.

• Staff often took their meal breaks at the same time as the patients and these should be rescheduled to enable them to provide more help.

• Interruptions such as doctors' visits should be discouraged during mealtimes and staff should be more sensitive about discussing or highlighting issues such as toileting during meal times.

Lack of support for older patients during mealtimes was also highlighted by a recent Age Concern survey carried out in the UK. The charity found that nine out of ten nurses don't always have time to help patients who need help with eating and has launched a campaign Hungry to be Heard to tackle the issue in UK hospitals.