Telemonitoring to improve nutritional status in community-dwelling elderly: design and methods for process and effect evaluation of a non-randomized controlled trial

M N van Doorn-van Atten, A Haveman-Nies, P Pilichowski, R Roca, J H M de Vries, C P G M de Groot, M N van Doorn-van Atten, A Haveman-Nies, P Pilichowski, R Roca, J H M de Vries, C P G M de Groot

Abstract

Background: A good nutritional status is key for maintaining health and quality of life in older adults. In the Netherlands, 11 to 35% of the community-dwelling elderly are undernourished. Undernutrition or the risk of it should be signalled as soon as possible to be able to intervene at an early stage. However, in the context of an ageing population health care resources are scarce, evoking interest in health enabling technologies such as telemonitoring. This article describes the design of an intervention study focussing at telemonitoring and improving nutritional status of community-dwelling elderly.

Methods: The PhysioDom Home Dietary Intake Monitoring intervention was evaluated using a parallel arm pre-test post-test design including 215 Dutch community-dwelling elderly aged > 65 years. The six-month intervention included nutritional telemonitoring, television messages, and dietary advice by a nurse or a dietician. The control group received usual care. Measurements were performed at baseline, after 4.5 months, and at the end of the study, and included the primary outcome nutritional status and secondary outcomes behavioural determinants, diet quality, appetite, body weight, physical activity, physical functioning, and quality of life. Furthermore, a process evaluation was conducted to provide insight into intervention delivery, feasibility, and acceptability.

Discussion: This study will improve insight into feasibility and effectiveness of telemonitoring of nutritional parameters in community-dwelling elderly. This will provide relevant insights for health care professionals, researchers, and policy makers.

Trial registration: The study was retrospectively registered at Clinical-Trials.gov (identifier NCT03240094 ) since August 3, 2017.

Keywords: Community-dwelling elderly; Prevention; Real-life setting; Study protocol; Telemonitoring; Undernutrition.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The ethics committee of Wageningen University approved the study protocol and all participants gave their written informed consent before the start of the study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Logic model of the PhysioDom HDIM intervention in the Netherlands

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