Involving community-dwelling older adults in activities related to meals as part of a rehabilitation program: a single-blinded cluster-controlled study

OBJECTIVE: To understand if older adults have improvement in health-related quality of life, muscle strength, and nutritional status when involved in own meals as part of a rehabilitation program.

DESIGN: The study was single-blinded cluster-controlled consisting of two groups: intervention and control.

SUBJECTS: Intervention consisted of 62 participants and control of 61 recruited from, respectively, three and two aged care areas. Age was, respectively, 82.9 (±7.5) vs. 83.5 (±7.7) years. The proportion of female participants was, respectively, 42 (68 %) vs. 41 (67 %).

INTERVENTIONS: The healthcare staff had education related to food, meals, and nutrition, and older adults participated in an eight weeks rehabilitation program. Focus was on shopping, cooking, social context, and ability to eat and included collaborative goal setting with a case manager. Controls received usual community aged care.

MAIN MEASURES: The main outcomes were health-related quality of life measured by EuroQol-5D-3L (EQ-5D-3L), muscle strength (30 seconds chair-stand), and body weight. Data were analyzed with non-parametric and parametric statistics as appropriate.

RESULTS: There was a significant (P = 0.01) improvement of health-related quality of life (converted EQ-5D-3L score) in intervention (0.570 vs. 0.668) compared to the control (0.666 vs. 0.580) from baseline to follow-up. There was no difference in muscle strength between intervention and control: 15 (31 %) vs. 16 (32 %) improved 30 seconds chair-stand. There was no difference in weight change between the groups (-1 vs. -2.4 kg) (P = 0.261).

CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in health-related quality of life was seen when older adults were involved in activities related to meals.