Effects of Implementing Reshaped Soft Meal at the Elderly Home Facility in Hong Kong

Background: Modified texture meals are given to those elderlies with chewing and swallowing difficulties. A survey, conducted by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service in 2019, found that 47.9% of the elderly nursing facility residents consuming modified texture meals, such as minced and pureed meals. Those food choices are less palatable and its appearance is unattractive to most consumers. The purpose of providing a reshaped soft meal is to improve consumer’s nutritional intakes.

Methods: Care and Attention Elderly Home residents, who were consuming food texture classified as Level 5 under the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) framework, were selected to participate in this study. Conventional and reshaped soft meals of the same dish were provided to those residents. Each meal provided 400 kcal of calories and 15g of protein respectively. Body height and weight Body Mass Index (BMI) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) scores were obtained to examine possible relationships with soft meal consumption.

Results: No significant differences were found between conventional and reshaped soft meals. No significant relationship was found between reshaped soft meal consumption and BMI, weight changes, and MOCA.

Conclusion: Routine review of soft meal usage should be performed by the nurse, speech therapist, and dietitian to monitor participants’ oral intake and swallowing ability. Soft meal production and recipes, such as ingredients and portion size, should be routinely reviewed by dietitians to ensure proper nutrition contents.