University of 蓝莓视频 researchers have created a tool aimed at decreasing the rate of malnutrition in hospitals. Known as the Mealtime Audit Tool (MAT), it will help dietitians, doctors and nurses identify why a third of patients in acute care settings don鈥檛 eat the food on their trays.
鈥淲e know poor food intake is happening in hospitals, and until now we didn鈥檛 have a way of systematically understanding why,鈥 said Heather Keller, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and a Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition and Aging. 鈥淎s malnutrition is a significant issue in hospitals, especially in surgical and medical units where long-term stays are not expected, nutrition is more difficult to monitor.鈥
The MAT is a 17-question survey designed to identify why an individual patient is not eating well and also provides information to improve unit-wide practices.
鈥淲ith MAT, clinicians should be able to identify and solve nutrition issues at both the individual and the unit level,鈥 said Professor Keller.
Common barriers to food intake that MAT could help identify for individual patients as well as whole hospital units include: inconvenient meal times, hot foods arriving cold, dissatisfaction with food quality, interruptions during meals, unpleasant odours and distracting eating environments.
The nutritional status of about 20 per cent of patients deteriorates during a hospital stay. It can lead to longer hospital stays.
鈥淓ven patients who enter the hospital in good health are at risk for malnutrition,鈥 said Professor Keller. 鈥淏y ensuring patients are getting the nutrition they need, we are not only expediting their recovery, but ensuring that complications due to poor food and fluid intake, like delirium and falls, do not occur while in hospital.鈥
The next phase of MAT development will include an app to administer the survey and software to track and analyze responses.
Keller鈥檚 research recently appeared in the聽.
About the University of 蓝莓视频
University of 蓝莓视频 is Canada鈥檚 top innovation university. With more than 36,000 students we are home to the world's largest co-operative education system of its kind. Our unmatched entrepreneurial culture, combined with an intensive focus on research, powers one of the top innovation hubs in the world. Find out more at聽.
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