Published in:
01-04-2017
Delivery of nutritious meals to elderly receiving home care: Feasibility and effectiveness
Published in: The journal of nutrition, health & aging | Issue 4/2017
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Background/Objectives
Elderly with functional disabilities are at increased risk of inadequate dietary intake. Little is known about the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving their dietary intake and nutritional status, nor about the determinants of successful implementation. We performed a feasibility study to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of a home delivery service providing nutritious meals.
Design
Quasi-experimental, with participants allocated to treatment group based on municipality of residence.
Setting and participants
Functionally disabled home-dwelling elderly receiving home care. Intervention: Three-month daily meal service consisting of dinner and snacks (intervention). The control group sustained habitual food intake.
Measurements
Forty-four elderly were included (intervention group: 25, control group: 19). For most aspects of the meal service, approximately 90% of participants indicated being satisfied, and the large majority (70%) was interested in receiving a similar meal service in the future. At the end of the 3-month intervention, the intervention group showed a greater increase than the control group in body weight (P < 0.005), body mass index (P < 0.005), upper leg circumference (P < 0.01) and fat free mass (FFM, P < 0.03). Three months post-intervention, only the increase in FFM remained statistically significant (P < 0.05). Except for calcium intake, no positive intervention effect was observed for any of the other outcomes.
Conclusion
Our study stresses the feasibility as well as the potential of healthy and tasteful meals to support home-dwelling elderly, by showing that a high-quality meal service was highly appreciated and had a rapid effect on FFM.