There's been a dramatic increase in malnutrition among patients in Irish hospitals.

A study released today shows over 222,000 have serious nutritional issues, as a result of cancer or chronic diseases that affect many older people.

It's a 59% increase on a previous study in 2012 - and represents a doubling of the annual cost to the health service, at €2.8 billion euro.

Dr Niamh Rice from The Irish Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism said patients with 'disease-related malnutrition' take longer to recover, and have a greater risk of complication.

"It affects anyone with a chronic disease that is interfering with their ability to eat or their appetite, and that can happen very quickly," she said.

"I think anybody would understand, they could certainly know about cancer patients, I think they know the relationship between cancer and weight loss."

Dr Rice said there are other diseases that similarly interfere with appetite.

Main image: A nurse with a patient who is undergoing treatment for kidney disease on a kidney dialysis machine at a hospital. Image: Matthew Horwood / Alamy. 8 April 2014