Hospital Meal Provision for Diabetes Patients

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Meal Provision for Inpatients with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

• IRAS ID

  250255

• Contact name

  Nicola Guess

• Contact email

  Nicola.Guess@kcl.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  KCL

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 7 months, 3 days

• Research summary

  The annual National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA) suggests that nationwide hospitals are not meeting standards for quality and acceptability of meals for patients with diabetes. Episodes of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) affect 30% of inpatients with diabetes. While the NaDIA gathers information on how medication errors many contribute to episodes of hypoglycaemia, there is no information on whether or how meal provision, content and timing may also be risk factors. Furthermore, national guidelines on dietary management of diabetes now include a wider variety of possible dietary approaches including carbohydrate restriction, a Mediterranean-style diet, low-glycaemic, vegetarian and others. It is not clear whether inpatient meal provision meets the needs of patients with regards to their dietary preference.
  Therefore, this project aims to build on the broad but limited findings from the NaDIA to gather in-depth information on inpatient meal provision, timing and content for people with diabetes, and also gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback from the patients, their family members or carers to enable the development of recommendations for improvement of patient satisfaction, wellbeing and safety.
  This project will be carried out across Guy's and St Thomas' (GSTT), King's College Hospital (KCH) NHS Foundation Trusts. This objectives of this project are to:
  1) Assess acceptability and appropriateness of food, meal items and timings across all inpatients with type 1 and 2 diabetes.
  2) Assess the nutritional composition of meals and foods offered to patients with diabetes.
  3) Determine the nutrient intake of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes
  4) Make recommendations for improvements in inpatient meal provision

• REC name

  East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/EE/0327

• Date of REC Opinion

  10 Oct 2018

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion