Up to 40% of patients do not finish their plate. With better prepared meal trays and the possibility of sitting down, patients have a better appetite.
Undernutrition is a constant problem in the hospital. Meal trays shunned, food waste are commonplace in services in France and around the world. Would we eat badly in the hospital? According to a study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the quality of the dishes is not really in question. It is rather the environment around the meal that makes patients balk.
Leave time to time
Whether it is because of the sickening treatments, or the illness that suppresses the appetite, 20 to 40% of hospitalized patients are affected by undernutrition. A phenomenon that can affect recovery after surgery or during treatment.
This study confirms the trend, since 4 out of 10 participants did not finish their plate. 10% even decided not to touch its content. Making this moment a full-fledged healing moment improves this statistic.
While interrupting the meal does not affect the experience, being in a sitting position or receiving help when needed reduces the level of waste.
This experience, Patrick Le Ray also noted during a test. Deputy director of the Inter-hospital Union of the Gulf of Morbihan (Silgom), he is at the head of an establishment which provides meal trays to several hospital structures. “It is often said that when there are five components in the evening, the person does not eat everything. If we give him time to eat, if we help or encourage him, we see over 15 days that the residual weight of each meal had significantly decreased, ”he explains.
Patrick Le Ray, deputy director of Silgom: ” We sometimes have to distribute meals on unsuitable time slots. A whole environment has to be put in place. “
“Give back meaning”
When leaving the hospital, many patients complain about the quality of their meals. In reality, the quality wouldn’t really be the issue, but this review would crystallize bad experiences. “Everyone has a say in catering,” jokes Pascal Loye, hospital engineer, hotel and catering within the Henri-Mondor hospital group (Créteil, Val-de-Marne).
For more than 10 years, this man has been working on the food environment of hospitalized patients. Its objective: “to give back landmarks and meaning” to these essential moments of the day.
The tips he develops are simple but effective, and inexpensive. Playing with colors, improving the presentation, wishing a good appetite are all methods that make a meal tray more tempting… and therefore encourage people to finish the plate. “Good food support is above all fun,” confirms Pascal Loye, an example in the key. A bakery that smells good makes you hungry. Likewise, reheating dishes in the care department instead of the kitchen will make patients want it. And this, even though they will not necessarily have an appetite.
Adapt approaches
This is in any case what a team from Tel Aviv University (Israel) observed in October 2015, as part of works carried out with the Paul-Bocuse Institute in Lyon (Rhône). A group of 100 patients received standard meal trays. The other benefited from an improved presentation, on the advice of the heads of the Institute. “The study has shown that food intake is improved by 30% only by reviewing the presentation of the dishes,” recalls Hervé Fleury, its executive vice-president. The presentation does have a role since among the arguments explaining the refusal to finish the plate, the main one concerned… the taste!
Care of the packaging is important because this attention has an impact on the behavior of patients. “The patient makes an effort to eat when he has no appetite, and this also has a positive impact on the caregiver”, underlines Hervé Fleury. We still have to adapt to each audience: work on textures, the way of consuming the food, the quantities. All depending on the pathologies.
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