AFAE
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing factors affecting Eating for those on the Nutrition Support Dietitians' Home visiting service
IRAS ID
208869
Contact name
Robert Grant
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 14 days
Research summary
Undernutrition can worsen health and quality of life. There are many factors contributing to undernutrition, such as being unable to get to food shops, unable to afford food, certain disease conditions and emotional factors, for example anxiety and depression. The relationship between these factors can be complex. Housebound individuals are particularly vulnerable to many of these factors. The evidence-base for factors affecting oral intake in the housebound is limited.
The dietitian must understand the causes of the patient’s undernutrition to tailor advice. However, the housebound are vulnerable to such a large number of the risk factors for undernutrition that it can become difficult to establish the most salient issues. Therefore, a new assessment tool has been developed to try and better understand this. The assessment tool has been developed from the literature, key guidelines and undergone peer review with dietitians in the field. The participant will be asked if a factor affects their eating and, if so, to what extent. The hope being this will allow for a systematic assessment and clarify, from the patient’s perspective, what is affecting their eating the most.
This project seeks to pilot and further develop this assessment tool with individuals under the care of the nutrition support community dietitians home-visiting service. Those already seeing a dietitian are to be eligible. A researcher will attend the participants’ home. The researcher will ask the participant each question on the assessment tool and then ask open-ended questions to identify if there are other factors affecting eating the acceptability of the tool. The whole interview will be voice-recorded. It is expected to take around an hours of a participant’s time. The hope being if we understand the causes of undernutrition in the housebound better we can better tailor advice and support this patient group.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1949
Date of REC Opinion
14 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion