By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Individualized attention during daily meals and snacks in between minimizes weight loss among long-stay nursing home residents, researchers report.

The amount and quality of daily feeding assistance "can and does make a significant difference on the nutritional health status of a frail population," Dr. Sandra F. Simmons told Reuters Health.

Previous studies have shown that unintentional weight loss in the elderly increases the risk of illness and death.

Simmons, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues assessed unintentional weight loss among 76 nursing home residents (83 years old on average) who were at risk of weight loss. The mostly female participants had been in residential care for about 3 years.

Half the group received meal and snack time assistance for 24 weeks, while the other study participants took meals and snacks without additional attention (control group). During a second 24-week period, those initially given feeding assistance returned to usual feeding practice, while the original control group received feeding assistance.

Simmons' team documented weight and food intake at the start, during, and at the end of each study phase.

Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, show 56 percent of the study participants maintained or gained weight when given feeding assistance, while just 28 percent did so under usual feeding practices.

The feeding assistance provided in this study required an average of 42 minutes per resident per meal and 14 minutes per resident per snack - more time than is generally allotted for meal and snack delivery by nursing home staff.

However, in daily care practice, Simmons and colleagues recommend grouping residents together for meals and snacks to improve the efficiency of nursing home staff.

"We have found a ratio of one trained staff member to three-to-four residents during mealtime, and one trained staff member to four-to-six residents between meals (snacks), can be just as effective as one-to-one feeding," Simmons said.

Continued investigations will attempt to identify optimal ways to identify and target nursing home residents in need of feeding assistance, and how to train and manage staff to best deliver this additional attention.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, August 2008

• More News on Nursing Homes
• More News on Nutrition for Seniors

Related MedlinePlus Pages:

• Nursing Homes
• Nutrition for Seniors