Investigating Changes in Older Adults' Eating Habits
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the reasons why older adults change their eating habits.
IRAS ID
145843
Contact name
Kate Snowball
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
“Nutrition support in adults has important implications in health and social care settings. When people are malnourished, their basic health and social care outcomes are significantly affected, making malnutrition an important patient safety issue. It continues to be both under-detected and undertreated, with potentially fatal consequences.” (NICE, 2012).
Intentionally restricting eating is a common problem amongst older adults, with there being many possible reasons for this, however little research has focused on understanding this issue. Using a mixed-methods design this study will aim to develop a theory of why some older adults intentionally restrict or stop eating. The objectives of the study are (1) To explore the reasons why older adults restrict their eating. (2) To attempt to identify these reasons to assess whether there are common patterns to explain such behaviour. (3) To allow a theory of older adults’ failure to eat to be explored. (4) To allow a future study to explore the development of a screening tool to allow earlier identification and better assessment of the reasons why older adults may restrict eating.
These objectives will be explored using a three strand approach:
1) Interviews will explore the perceptions of older adults who have previously restricted their eating.
2) Focus groups with health professionals will aim to establish their understanding of why some older adults deliberately restrict or stop eating.
3) A questionnaire, completed by a minimum of 100 community-dwelling older adults, will aim to determine the contributing factors why they have previously intentionally restricted eating, using dichotomous Yes/No responses.The results from the interviews and focus groups will be analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. The questionnaire will be analysed via statistical analysis. The project aims to develop a theory of older adult eating, from which a future project can develop a screening tool to allow earlier, more appropriate interventions to be possible for older adults who deliberately restrict or stop eating.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/1105
Date of REC Opinion
30 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion