Mealtime Care for dementia, delirium & cognitively impaired patients

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Mealtime Assistance by Staff and Personal Carers and Food intake among Patients with background Dementia, Delirium, and Cognitive Impairment: A Qualitative Exploration

• IRAS ID

  335807

• Contact name

  David S Udo

• Contact email

  david.udo@nhs.net

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Brighton

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 5 months, 28 days

• Research summary

  
  Background:
  Dementia progression is associated with decline in functional ability, leading to inadequate nutritional intake (Volkert et al., 2015; Morley et al., 2013), and seven percent of participants in Tsang (2008) study who required mealtime assistance (MTA) had no assistance. Studies have utilised nurses, nursing assistants, and volunteers to provide feeding assistance to DDCI patients (Batchelor-Murphy et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019; Howson et al., 2018). No study found to utilise personal carers.

  Aims of Study:
  To understand the experiences and challenges by nursing staff and Personal Carers regarding mealtime assistance (MTA) for patients with background dementia, delirium, and cognitive impairment to (DDCI); and to propose intervention framework for effective MTA.

  Justification:
  The few PCs who visit to provide MTA seem to engage well with the patients that they visit to assist. Concern about the non-involvement of PCs had caused Manthorpe and Watson (2003) to suggest need for future research to explore the benefits of utilising PCs. There is a gap in literature regarding involvement of PCs during mealtimes.

  Research question:
  ‘What are the experiences and perceptions of staff and Personal Carers regarding mealtime assistance for patients with background dementia, delirium, and cognitive impairment?

  Design:
  The study will use be qualitative in nature. Participants will be nursing staff and Personal Carers.

  Research Site:
  Salisbury District Hospital, England. The study is self-funded.
  

• REC name

  HSC REC B

• REC reference

  25/NI/0122

• Date of REC Opinion

  2 Oct 2025

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion