Abstract
BackgroundSufficient protein intake among hospitalized patients may contribute to faster recovery and a decrease in healthcare costs. Nevertheless, hospitalized patients are often found to consume too little protein. This field study explored the success of a small, inexpensive intervention adapted from the marketing literature, to encourage protein consumption among hospitalized patients.MethodsThe study was performed at a hospital where patients order food by calling to the meal service. The intervention consisted of a verbal prompt: “Would you like some [target product] with that?”, which was presented to patients by trained telephone operators, after patients finished ordering their lunch. Target products were two foods rich in protein; fruit quark and yoghurt drink. For half of the patients, the verbal prompt was preceded by verbal praise on their lunch order, which was aimed to increase compliance with the verbal prompt.ResultsThree hundred and fifteen hospitalized patients, aged 18–87 years took part in the study. Verbal prompts significantly increased ordering of the target products nearly sevenfold (from ordering by 6.5 % of patients to 45.2 % of patients). Protein content of ordered lunch and all food orders of the day combined showed a trend, with orders of patients receiving only a verbal prompt or a verbal prompt and verbal praise containing a larger amount of protein than lunch orders of patients in the control condition. At an individual level, protein content of ordered food increased significantly, reaching the 25–30 g of protein per main meal recommended by dieticians of the hospital. Verbal praise did not increase compliance with the verbal prompt. Patients consumed most or all of the target product and verbal prompts were not perceived to be obtrusive.ConclusionsAlthough changing eating patterns is challenging, this study shows that simple interventions such as verbal prompts may be useful tools for health professionals to stimulate healthy food consumption among patients during hospitalization.
Highlights
Sufficient protein intake among hospitalized patients may contribute to faster recovery and a decrease in healthcare costs
An ANOVA with condition as the independent variable and protein content of the lunch order as dependent variable was used to test whether condition had an effect on protein content of the lunch order of the total sample of patients
The analysis showed a trend, with lunch orders of patients in the verbal prompt and praise--prompt conditions containing a larger amount of protein than lunch orders of patients in the control condition (p = .077, eta2 = .027)
Summary
Sufficient protein intake among hospitalized patients may contribute to faster recovery and a decrease in healthcare costs. Ensuring sufficient protein intake among hospitalized patients may contribute to faster recovery and a decrease in healthcare costs. Hospitalized patients are often found to consume too little protein [8]. Demographic characteristics of patients in the total sample were explored to gain some insight into who did (N = 52) and who did not order the target product (N = 156). The analyses showed that patients who did and did not order the target product did not differ from each other in terms of age, diet or gender, all p values ≥ .485
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