Nutritional Education for Dependant Patients (atdom_nut)

Objective: To assess the effect of a nutritional educational intervention on the risk of malnutrition dependent patients aimed at the caregivers.

Material and methods:

Intervention study with control group, with 200 patients randomized selected, in a Home Care Program of 5 Primary Care Centers, malnourished and dependents, older than 65 years and with a caregiver.

Socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the patient and the caregiver are collected. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), food intake, anthropometric and serum parameters of nutritional status: albumin, prealbumin, transferrin, hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, iron, ferritin, are evaluates on 0- 6-12 months. Also evaluated dentures, basic activities of daily living (Barthel test), cognitive state (Pfeiffer test) status of mood (Yesavage test).

Prior to the intervention, the educational procedure and the design of educational material are standardized among nurses. The nurses make an initial session for caregivers and monitored the education at home monthly (4 visits) up to 6 months. NANDA (NORTH AMERICAN NURSING DIAGNOSIS ASSOCIATION) specific methodology of the Nursing profession is used. The investigators studied the effect of the intervention on the caregivers on the patient's nutritional status by the MNA test, diet, anthropometry and biochemical parameters.

Bivariate normal test statistics and multivariate models were created to adjust the effect of the intervention.

The program SPSS / PC was used.