Dementia
Conditions
Keywords
nutrition assessment
Brief summary
Nutrition is critical for disease prevention and brain health. Malnutrition and weight loss often affect persons with Alzheimer's dementia (PWD), worsening overall health and dementia. Informal caregivers (usually family members) perform many nutrition-related tasks as part of daily care such as food preparation and feeding. Limited research, however, suggests informal caregivers experience high rates of caregiver burden, malnutrition and low health literacy. More research is needed to uncover these and other factors that may contribute to malnutrition for both PWDs and their caregivers. Nutrition literacy, or ability to navigate nutrition information to select healthy food, may be an important caregiving factor that protects both individuals from experiencing nutritional decline. Although the NIH has increased funding to support caregiver research, caregiver interventions that include nutrition are lacking. The purpose of this study is to inform the design of a future nutrition intervention study.
Interventions
OTHERNutrition Status
Participants will be examined by a registered dietitian to assess nutrition status.
Sponsors
University of Kansas Medical Center
Study design
Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
CROSS_SECTIONAL
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Person with dementia: Must be an adult of any age, diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia or other dementia, reside at home with a family caregiver or domestic partner, and have weight records at a minimum of 2 timepoints. * Caregiver: Must be at least 18 years old, English speaking, primary caregiver who is responsible for food planning, and no overt cognitive impairment.
Exclusion criteria
* Person with dementia: Frontal-temporal dementia, alcohol-related dementia, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, or actively participating in nutrition intervention research. * Caregiver: Visual impairments that prevent completing questionnaires or actively participating in nutrition intervention research.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nutrition status of persons with dementia | 1 month | Nutrition status will be assessed by registered dietitians, using the Mini-Nutrition Assessment (score ranges 0 to 18) and Subjective Global Assessment (score ranges 0-7). Scores of each measure are further categorized into normal, at risk of malnutrition, or malnourished. |
| Nutrition literacy of caregivers | 1 week | Nutrition literacy will be measured by the Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument (score ranges 0 to 42). Scores are interpreted as: \>39 good, 29-38: moderate, ≤ 28: poor. |
| Nutrition status of caregivers | 1 month | Nutrition status of caregivers will be measured using the Mini Nutrition Assessment (MNA) tool (18-item version). Scoring is Normal (12-14 pts), At risk of malnutrition (8-11 pts), or Malnourished (0-7 points). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Perceived nutrition needs of informal caregivers of persons with dementia | 1 week | Researchers will use interviews, surveys, and focus groups to collect the thoughts of caregivers and clinic care providers to anticipate needs for a future caregiver intervention. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed