{"id":5566,"date":"2017-03-16T15:55:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T14:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/vitalites\/the-importance-of-stimulating-the-appetite-of-elderly-hospital-patients\/"},"modified":"2022-04-12T21:41:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T19:41:03","slug":"the-importance-of-stimulating-the-appetite-of-elderly-hospital-patients","status":"publish","type":"vitalites","link":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/vitalites\/the-importance-of-stimulating-the-appetite-of-elderly-hospital-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of stimulating the appetite of elderly hospital patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLoss of appetite in elderly hospital patients is a major problem. Eating too little can lead to malnutrition<\/strong>, which in turn means the patient remains in hospital for longer and increases the risk of mortality. A group of Australian scientists recently published a survey in which they asked elderly patients how they felt about hospital food and mealtimes. The results of the survey conducted at Brisbane hospital were published in the Maturitas journal.<\/p>\n

\n\tCircumstances not ideal<\/h4>\n

\n\tTwenty-six patients aged over 65 were selected on the basis of their lack of appetite (it was noted that they consumed less than half the food they were served).<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"In Brisbane hospital, meals are served at 7am, 11.45am and 5pm. Patients choose their menus the day before and some dishes are prepared on site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 30-minute one-to-one interviews, patients explained their lack of appetite by the circumstances of their hospital stay.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey found a loss of appetite to be expected given those circumstances.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome said medicine curbed their appetite, others mentioned feeling nauseous and some purposely ate little in order to get well. Several patients said that medical treatment was more important than food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked what prevented them from eating well in hospital, many patients cited inactivity, constipation and feeling low. Some also said they purposely avoided drinking too much to avoid getting up to go to the toilet. A few patients said they missed home-made food and taking meals with their loved ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tToo many constraints\u00a0<\/h4>\n

\n\tPatients complained of meal times being interrupted<\/strong> by nursing attendance or doctors\u2019 visits. Some patients felt they were allowed insufficient time to finish. The hospital meal set-up is perceived as overly strict. Patients must choose a meal from an unappetising list<\/strong>, the portions are seen as too big and meal times as inconvenient.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe survey also reveals that patients feel that nurses do not encourage them to eat more and are generally not attentive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA few evoke the bad quality of the meals, saying that their visitors bring them more appetising dishes than those offered by the hospital.<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, some patients are convinced they eat enough while others are wary of wasting food and would prefer to order small portions.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll in all, the survey highlights the complexity of the issue. The main causes of appetite loss<\/strong> are the reasons for the hospitalisation and the strictness of the hospital<\/strong> set-up, yet improvements can be made in other areas.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe researchers suggest that raising patients\u2019 nutritional awareness would be helpful, as would more nutrient-rich food, which would enable smaller portions.<\/p>\n

\n\tVisits during meal times should be encouraged, interruptions minimised and more time allocated to finish. Appetising snacks could also be provided, to be consumed as desired.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe research team concludes that hospital staff must be aware of the important role of diet in a patient\u2019s recovery<\/strong>.
\n\t\u00a0 \u00a0
\n\tKelti Hope, Maree Ferguson, Dianne P. Reidlinger, Ekta Agarwal. \u201cI don\u2019t eat when I\u2019m sick\u201d: Older people\u2019s food and mealtime experiences in hospital. Maturitas. March 2017 (97): 6-13. http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.maturitas.2016.12.001\u00a0<\/a>
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loss of appetite in elderly hospital patients is a major problem. Eating too little can lead to malnutrition, which in turn means the patient remains in hospital for longer and increases the risk of mortality. A group of Australian scientists recently published a survey in which they asked elderly patients how they felt about hospital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5567,"template":"","thematique_blog":[25],"tags_blog":[77],"class_list":["post-5566","vitalites","type-vitalites","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","thematique_blog-nutrition-sante","tags_blog-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vitalites\/5566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vitalites"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vitalites"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"thematique_blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematique_blog?post=5566"},{"taxonomy":"tags_blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutrisens.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags_blog?post=5566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}