Furthermore, recent improvementsin the completeness of coding (the number of diagnoses that are recorded) may suggestan undercount of the number of cases of malnutrition recorded in earlier years.The definition of malnutrition includes diagnoses of nutritionaldeficiencies (e.g. vitamin A, thiamine and calcium deficiencies), nutritional anaemiasand malnutrition related diabetes mellitus.Table 1 shows the number of patients discharged from acutehospitals in Scotland with a diagnosis of malnutrition broken downby NHS board of residence and age group.Table1: Number of Patients Discharged with Diagnosis of Malnutrition in NHS Scotland,by NHS Board of Residence; for Years Ending 31 March 1998-2006 All Ages Year Ending 31 March 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Scotland 1,755 1,808 1,784 1,627 1,586 1,731 1,752 1,821 1,909 Ayrshire and Arran 107 107 144 136 129 164 126 116 117 Borders 44 53 40 29 45 39 59 34 35 Dumfries and Galloway 86 101 117 104 90 98 91 81 85 Fife 43 49 75 74 93 98 107 123 125 Forth Valley 59 56 79 77 87 91 55 62 51 Grampian 62 69 70 67 53 55 83 96 95 Greater Glasgow and Clyde 578 620 499 450 386 426 440 511 503 Highland 72 68 84 75 86 92 87 97 137 Lanarkshire 261 287 275 268 187 200 172 157 145 Lothian 301 243 224 198 307 337 401 423 514 Orkney 5 2 3 1 2 3 5 5 8 Shetland 5 2 7...