Dementia and Nutrition: A Multidisciplinary Massive Open Online Course for Health Care Professionals, Students and Non‐Professionals

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundMore than 55 million people worldwide have dementia. This number will increase in the future, causing strains on healthcare systems. In‐depth knowledge about dementia and its negative effects, such as nutritional problems, is necessary to pursue targeted prevention strategies and to provide adequate treatment and care. Therefore, the aim of the project was to develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on dementia and nutrition for the healthcare sector. Such MOOCs can reach many users and have proven effective for self‐directed continuous professional development.MethodsThe MOOC was developed for students and professionals in health care as well as for non‐professionals, like relatives of people with dementia, in German‐speaking countries as a joint project from 2021‐2022. Different disciplines (dietetics, nutritional scientists, nursing scientists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, nutritional geragogists, medical doctors, technological disciplines, social scientists) and institutions, like universities, developed the content of the MOOC based on design principles, international literature and expert knowledge. The online course was made available free of charge on the iMooX platform of the Technical University of Graz, Austria (https://imoox.at/mooc/).ResultsThe MOOC consists of 6 lessons which can be completed in a period of 6 weeks. The lessons include the following topics: (1) background information on dementia, like prevalence of dementia and costs; (2) risk factors for dementia, prevention and nutrition concepts; (3) impact of dementia on eating behaviors; (4) practical aspects of nutrition in dementia, like appetite stimulation; (5) activities of daily living & eating support; and (6) new technologies (e.g. robots, virtual reality) for prevention and support of eating problems. The content is delivered to the participants by means of videos and learning materials via various end devices. Each lesson ends with a quiz. Participants who answer at least 75% of the self‐assessment questions correctly receive a certificate.ConclusionThe MOOC was successfully launched on January 17, 2023 (https://imoox.at/course/demern) and has already had more than 200 participants in the first round. In the future, an English‐language version is planned in order to further increase the number of people that can profit from the MOOC.