Objective To investigate changes in nutritional status in senile dementia patients with malnutrition treated with enteral nutrition combined with rehabilitation therapy evaluated by using the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form(MNA-SF).Methods Fifty hospitalized patients with senile dementia and malnutrition at the internal medicine department of our hospital from July 2014 to July 2017 were enrolled and further divided into an enteral nutrition group(a control group,n =25)and an enteral nutrition combined with rehabilitation therapy group(an observation group,n=25).Anthropometric parameters including body mass index,biceps circumference,calf circumference,triceps skin-fold thickness,and blood biochemical parameters including hemoglobin,total cholesterol,triacylglycerol,albumin,lymphocyte count before and after treatment were compared between the groups.Results Anthropometric parameters such as body mass index,biceps circumference,calf circumference and triceps skin-fold thickness had no significant difference between the two groups before treatment (P ＞ 0.05),while after 30 days of treatment,anthropometric parameters saw improvement in both groups compared with those before treatment,and the improvement was greater in the observation group than in the control group(P ＜0.01).Blood biochemical parameters had no significant difference between the two groups before treatment(P＞0.05).After 30 days of treatment,levels of total cholesterol and triacylglycerol had no significant difference compared with those before treatment or between the two groups(P ＞0.05),while levels of hemoglobin,albumin and lymphocyte count improved compared with those before treatment (t =2.645,2.843,2.967,respectively,P ＜0.01),and had significant differences between the groups (t =2.548,2.864,2.976,respectively,P＜0.01).Conclusions Enteral nutrition combined with rehabilitation therapy has a measurable,positive influence on nutritional status in senile dementia patients with malnutrition.