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Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents

Background: Choice of food is an imperative aspect of quality of life for residents in Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs), where overall choice and control is diminished upon entering a home to receive care. The purpose of this study was to examine the current strategies of menu planning in a range...

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Autores principales: Abbey, Karen L., Wright, Olivia R. L., Capra, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586549/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26371040
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095354
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author Abbey, Karen L.
Wright, Olivia R. L.
Capra, Sandra
author_facet Abbey, Karen L.
Wright, Olivia R. L.
Capra, Sandra
author_sort Abbey, Karen L.
collection PubMed
description Background: Choice of food is an imperative aspect of quality of life for residents in Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs), where overall choice and control is diminished upon entering a home to receive care. The purpose of this study was to examine the current strategies of menu planning in a range of RACHs in Australia, and whether this facilitated appropriate levels of choice for residents receiving texture modified and general diets. Methods: The study comprised a National Menu Survey using a new survey instrument collecting general information about the RACH and foodservice system, menu information and staffing information (n = 247); a national menu analysis (n = 161) and an observational case study of 36 meal environments. Results: Choice was low for the entire sample, but particularly for those receiving pureed texture modified diets. Evidence of menu planning to facilitate the inclusion of choice and alternatives was limited. Discussion: Regulation and monitoring of the Australian Aged Care Accreditation Standards needs to be strengthened to mandate improvement of the choice and variety offered to residents, particularly those on pureed texture modified diets. Further research on how menu choice and a lack of variety in meals affects the quality of life residents is needed in this context, but current evidence suggests the effect would be detrimental and undermine resident autonomy and nutritional status.
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spelling pubmed-45865492015-10-06 Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents Abbey, Karen L. Wright, Olivia R. L. Capra, Sandra Nutrients Article Background: Choice of food is an imperative aspect of quality of life for residents in Residential Aged Care Homes (RACHs), where overall choice and control is diminished upon entering a home to receive care. The purpose of this study was to examine the current strategies of menu planning in a range of RACHs in Australia, and whether this facilitated appropriate levels of choice for residents receiving texture modified and general diets. Methods: The study comprised a National Menu Survey using a new survey instrument collecting general information about the RACH and foodservice system, menu information and staffing information (n = 247); a national menu analysis (n = 161) and an observational case study of 36 meal environments. Results: Choice was low for the entire sample, but particularly for those receiving pureed texture modified diets. Evidence of menu planning to facilitate the inclusion of choice and alternatives was limited. Discussion: Regulation and monitoring of the Australian Aged Care Accreditation Standards needs to be strengthened to mandate improvement of the choice and variety offered to residents, particularly those on pureed texture modified diets. Further research on how menu choice and a lack of variety in meals affects the quality of life residents is needed in this context, but current evidence suggests the effect would be detrimental and undermine resident autonomy and nutritional status. MDPI 2015-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4586549/ /pubmed/26371040 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095354 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Abbey, Karen L.
Wright, Olivia R. L.
Capra, Sandra
Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title_full Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title_fullStr Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title_full_unstemmed Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title_short Menu Planning in Residential Aged Care—The Level of Choice and Quality of Planning of Meals Available to Residents
title_sort menu planning in residential aged care—the level of choice and quality of planning of meals available to residents
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586549/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26371040
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu7095354
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