I saw a TV show on which "failure to thrive" was listed as a cause of someone's death. That sounds like a ludicrous understatement on the face of it, but it got me wondering if there's more than one way to understand what "thrive" means. Whaddaya know, y'all?

From my perspective as a nurse, we use it with babies who don't gain weight or grow; it's abbreviated FTT. However, I have always had the same question about it as you do. It seems so non-descript. Here is a site that identifies some of the underlying conditions.

Thanks for the link. That makes sense in babies and adolescents, but no sense in old people who have long since quit growing, and that's how it was applied in the program.

I've not seen it applied to adults. However, I did find a lot about it online. This medscape link is pretty good, as it provides details on the pathophysiology, etiology, epidemiology, morbidity and mortality and patient education. It also provides this mnemonic (the 11 Ds of "The Dwindles") as precipitants of geriatric failure to thrive:

Diseases (medical illness)
Dementia
Delirium
Drinking alcohol, other substance abuse
Drugs
Dysphagia
Deafness, blindness, other sensory deficits
Depression
Desertion by family, friends (social isolation)
Destitution (poverty)
Despair (giving up)