Design of quality indicators for oral nutritional therapy.

Abstract

Quality indicators in nutritional therapy (NT) have been proposed as useful tools to improve clinical NT. This study was conducted to develop feasible quality indicators in oral nutritional therapy (QIONTs) to aid quality control. A Clinical Nutrition Task Force composed of Brazilian NT experts from the International Life Science Institute (ILSI) developed QIONTs. In an internet-based psychometric survey, 40 independent Brazilian NT practitioners assessed four attributes (simplicity, utility, objectivity, and low cost) of each QIONT using a five-point Likert scale. Independent NT experts consistently classified all 12 QIONTs developed by the ILSI team as good (mean Cronbach's alpha = 0.84). In ranked order, the QIONTs enable assessment of the frequency of nutritional screening, oral nutritional supplementation (ONS) prescription to malnourished patients receiving an oral diet, ONS prescription to patients receiving an oral diet but at risk of malnutrition, nutritional assessment, adhesion to ONS regime, hospitalized patients with insufficient oral dietary intake and ONS prescription, ICU patients with insufficient oral dietary intake and ONS prescription, oral intake assessment in ICU patients, oral intake assessment in ward patients, oral supplement volume intolerance due to inappropriate offering time, ONS flavor intolerance, and ONS volume intolerance. Twelve potentially feasible new QIONTs were developed and approved for clinical practice by experts.