Safe nutrition and hydration for care home residents with dysphagia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Delivering safe, effective nutrition and hydration care to residents with dysphagia: a theory-based approach to developing a link dysphagia practitioner
IRAS ID
265784
Contact name
Jennie Wilson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of West London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, days
Research summary
This study aims to understand how people in care homes who have a problem with swallowing, called dysphagia, can be cared for safely and effectively. Dysphagia is estimated to affect between 50% -70% of care home residents. Swallowing difficulties are common in people who have had a stroke, have dementia or other condition such as Parkinson’s disease. A person who has difficulty swallowing may experience episodes of choking when food/fluid enters the lungs rather than the stomach. If this happens frequently, people may lose weight, become dehydrated and develop pneumonia. Speech and language therapists (SLT) provide specific recommendations for caring for a resident with dysphagia but have limited resources to support and train care home staff in the day to day care for such residents. Managing this aspect of care better, could improve residents’ quality of life, their food and fluid intake and reduce the incidence of pneumonia and admissions to hospital. This study will be undertaken over 14 months with up to four care homes who care for residents with dysphagia. We will seek to observe the SLT recommended care delivered to 25 residents. We will look at how well the recommendations of SLT are followed and also interview care home staff and residents/relatives to understand what helps/hinders safe care. One way of supporting safe care may be a dysphagia link practitioner (DLP) - a link between the SLT and care home staff - trained to advise and support other care staff. We will speak to care staff and link practitioners already employed in other areas to see if this might be useful. The information we collect in this study will be used to design a future study, where we will test an intervention to improve the safety of eating and drinking for residents with dysphagia.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1382
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion