Factors influencing the pace of food intake for nursing home residents with dementia: Resident characteristics, staff mealtime assistance and environmental stimulation.

Wen Liu,Kristine Williams,Ying‐Ling Jao

doi:10.1002/nop2.250

Wen Liu, Kristine Williams + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.250

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Abstract

AimTo examine the association of resident characteristics, staff mealtime assistance and environmental stimulation with the pace of food intake.DesignA secondary analysis of 36 baseline eating videos involving 19 nursing assistants and 15 residents with dementia in eight nursing homes from a communication intervention study.MethodsThe outcome variable was the pace of food intake (the number of bites and drinks per minute). The exploratory variables were resident characteristics (age, gender, dementia stage and eating performance), staff mealtime assistance (frequency of verbal, visual, partial and full physical assistance) and environmental stimulation. Multi‐level models were used to examine the association.ResultsA faster pace of food intake is associated with being male, better eating performance, staff provision of visual and physical assistance and better quality of environmental stimulation that involved interaction. The pace of food intake was not associated with resident age, staff verbal assistance or partial physical assistance.

Highlights

Dementia affects 5.5 million older adults (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017) and 68–70% individuals living in the residential care settings in the United States (Thies & Bleiler, 2013)
These complications further result in poor appetite, poor dentition, oral health‐related conditions, dysphagia and inability to plan meals and carry out complex eating tasks, which subsequently results in mealtime difficulties and further leads to insufficient food intake and weight loss (Droogsma et al, 2015; Liu, Shaw, & Chen, 2018)
It was hypothesized that the pace of food intake would be significantly associated with resident characteristics, staff mealtime assistance and environmental stimulation

Summary

Introduction

Dementia affects 5.5 million older adults (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017) and 68–70% individuals living in the residential care settings (residents) in the United States (Thies & Bleiler, 2013). Residents with dementia experience cognitive and functional decline, behavioural and biological disturbances, taste alteration and smell dysfunction, loss of ability to tolerate the texture of regular diets, as well as comorbidities and medication side effects, which are almost universal and expected complications of progressive dementia (Droogsma et al, 2015). These complications further result in poor appetite, poor dentition, oral health‐related conditions, dysphagia and inability to plan meals and carry out complex eating tasks, which subsequently results in mealtime difficulties and further leads to insufficient food intake and weight loss (Droogsma et al, 2015; Liu, Shaw, & Chen, 2018). Mealtime difficulties are significantly associated with low food intake among residents (Keller et al, 2017; Lin et al, 2010; Liu, Williams, Batchelor‐Murphy, Perkhounkova, & Hein, 2019)

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