Abstract
Objective
Taiwan is projected to become a super-aged society in 2026. Taiwan's government introduced
an innovative preventive care policy to improve aging-related conditions in 2017.
In this study, we examine the effectiveness of an eating ability promotion program
(EAPP) on the physical and mental performance of community-dwelling older adults.
Design
Single-masked, cluster randomized trial.
Setting
Two community care stations in Taichung, Taiwan.
Participants
Volunteers were recruited from these 2 community care stations. The 70 participants
were aged ≥60 years, able to walk independently and take care of themselves, and understood
Mandarin or Taiwanese.
Intervention
The volunteers were randomly assigned to an intervention; 40 participated in EAPP
training courses (experimental group) and 30 participated in originally scheduled
activities only (control group). EAPP training courses were conducted in the care
stations 4 hours per week for 12 weeks (for a total of 48 hours).
Measures
The physical performance outcomes were oral health, nutritional status, and fragility,
assessed using the Oral Health Assessment Tool, the Mini Nutritional Assessment, and
the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures fragility index, respectively. Cognitive function
was evaluated with the Mini-Cog test. Measurements were performed at baseline, at
the end of the 12-week intervention, and 1 month later.
Results
Following the EAPP intervention, controlling for baseline differences, the oral health
(F = 33.29, P < .001), nutritional status (F = 7.30, P = .009), and scale of fragility (F = 19.05, P < .001) of the participants in the experimental group were significantly better than
those reported in the control group.
Conclusions and Implications
Results of this preliminary study suggest that the EAPP intervention may be an effective
approach for improving oral health, nutritional status, and fragility in community-dwelling
older adults. This training course, which provides clear and concise information regarding
eating ability strategies, should undergo further evaluation and, if demonstrated
to be effective and cost-effective in broader trials, may be useful in promoting healthy
living.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 03, 2020
Footnotes
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 05-2632-H-166-001), Ministry of Health and Welfare (96c), China Medical University, Taiwan (CMU107-S-17), and Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology (CTU108-P-018), Taiwan. The funding source had no role in the design, methods, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis, or preparation of this article.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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