Classifying eating-related problems among institutionalized people with dementia.

Classifying eating-related problems among institutionalized people with dementia.

Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015 Nov 10;

Authors: Shinagawa S, Honda K, Kashibayashi T, Shigenobu K, Nakayama K, Ikeda M

Abstract
AIM: Various eating-related problems are commonly observed among people with dementia, and these problems place a huge burden on the caregivers. An appropriate classification of these problems is important to understand their underlying mechanisms and to develop a therapeutic approach for managing them. The aim of this study is to develop a possible classification of eating-related problems and to reveal the background factors affecting each of these problems across various conditions causing dementia.
METHODS: The participants were 208 institutionalized patients with a diagnosis of dementia. Care staff were asked to report all kinds of eating-related problems that they observed. After the nurses' responses were analyzed, 24 items relating to eating-related problems were extracted. A factor analysis of these 24 items was conducted, followed by a logistic regression analysis to investigate the independent variables that most affected each of the eating-related factors.
RESULTS: Four factors were obtained. Factor 1 was overeating, factor 2 was swallowing problems, factor 3 was decrease in appetite, and factor 4 was obsession with food. Each factor was associated with different background variables including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, Clinical Dementia Ratings (CDR), and neuropsychiatric symptoms.
CONCLUSION: This study suggested that eating-related problems are common across conditions causing dementia and should be separately considered in order to understand their underlying mechanisms.

PMID: 26556570 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

from #ENT-PubMed via ola Kala on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1RQkaWA
via IFTTT