Eating together among older patients in hospital: project evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of an eating together intervention among older patients in hospital
IRAS ID
249820
Contact name
Mat Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the West of England
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 29 days
Research summary
Mealtime is an important part of care in hospitals and patient satisfaction with the mealtime environment can improve food intake and contribute to patients’ overall recovery and quality of life. One way of improving the meal environment for older patients in hospitals is to provide opportunities where older people can eat their meals together. Providing patients with the opportunity to eat together enables effective, efficient and prompt food service by offering opportunities to socialise and maintain a normal daily routine.
The Soil Association’s Food for Life has received a £1.25 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund to develop and evaluate the Food for Life Better Care (FFL BC) programme. One of the core activities of the FFL BC programme is offering older people an opportunity to eat together in hospitals.
The main aim of this evaluation is to find out how the FFL BC Eating Together project may improve older patients’ well-being during admission in hospital. The evaluation will take place at two NHS Trust - Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust in Calderdale; and will run from August to December 2018.The evaluation will use a variety of research methods to collect information on how older patients perceive the importance of eating together in hospital on their well-being. We will compare a group of wards where the eating together project is taking place to a control group of wards where the project is not taking place within the same Trust on various well-being outcomes. Patients taking part in this evaluation will answer a series of questions, be observed during lunch mealtimes and take part in interviews. The information we get from this evaluation may help us to improve the eating environment of patients admitted to wards in the hospital. This can then serve as an example of good practice for food in hospitals and show how food may influence health and well-being of older patients admitted to hospital.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0471
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion