Weight Loss Prevention
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BEEF-UP YOUR BETWEEN-MEAL SNACK PROGRAM FIRST
First, a disclaimer: We have not yet conducted a study to evaluate this strategy. That said, intuitively it seems like a feasible, effective option for understaffed nursing homes. With this approach, staff would focus first on identifying nutritionally at-risk residents who are responsive to the snack intervention, and then evaluate the mealtime intervention. This contrasts with our prior studies, where we concentrated first on targeting the mealtime intervention. It seems likely that many, if not most, of the 50% of at-risk residents who proved responsive to the mealtime intervention would also respond to the snack intervention, increasing their daily intake level by 15% or more without any additional mealtime assistance.
The advantage of increasing intake levels through a snack program is that this intervention requires less staff time to implement per resident (about 5 minutes) than a mealtime intervention (about 15 minutes). Additionally, this between-meal intervention helps distribute feeding assistance throughout the day, so more workers, including the social activities staff, can help out. Residents who increase their daily food and fluid intake to adequate levels with the snack intervention do not need extra, more costly feeding assistance at mealtimes.
Time-Saving Tip:
If you cannot provide residents with three snacks daily, focus on providing snacks in the morning and afternoon time periods in conjunction with social activities. Our research shows that residents eat significantly more during morning and afternoon snack periods than evening periods.
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