Weight Loss Prevention
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Improving Food Intake in Nursing Home Residents with Feeding Assistance: A Staffing Analysis.
Sandra F. Simmons, Dan Osterweil, and John F. Schnelle, 2001, in Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences; Vol. 56A, No. 12, M790-M794.
This study was designed to answer two questions: 1) How many nursing home residents are responsive to feeding assistance? and 2) How much staff time is required to provide feeding assistance to these residents? Results showed that about half of the 74 residents enrolled in the study increased their intake by an average of 30% in response to a two-day, or six-meal, trial of feeding assistance implemented by trained research staff. This one-on-one intervention, however, required significantly more staff time to implement: an average of 38 minutes per resident per meal compared to 9 minutes rendered by nursing home staff under usual conditions. The authors suggest that the intervention would be more feasible to implement if unresponsive residents were accurately identified in assessment trials; failure to identify these residents would roughly double the number of staff needed during mealtimes. Staff requirements could be reduced further if staff provided feeding assistance to groups of residents. Preliminary data from this study suggests that feeding assistance can be effectively provided in small groups of three for most residents who are responsive to individual assistance, but additional time is required to transport these residents to and from the dining room.
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