Abstract
Food shaping methods (e.g., food molds) can improve nutrition for older people, particularly those with dysphagia (swallowing difficulty) who require texture-modified foods. Improved aged care quality and safety standards are expected to drive improvements in food and nutrition. However, little is known about how far current policies cover dysphagia, nutrition, texture modification, and food shaping. This policy review analyzes the information content of Australian aged care policies on nutrition for content relating to nutrition, dysphagia, food textures, and food shaping to guide aged care services in meeting quality and safety standards. We reviewed 13 relevant publicly available policies on nutrition in aged care, including 54 documents, produced by Australian national, state and territory health and ageing departments. Data was extracted from the policies and analyzed for informational content relating to dysphagia, texture-modified foods, nutrition, and food shaping. While all 13 of the policies provided statements on nutrition for older people, only 3 provided statements, limited in detail, relating to dysphagia, nutrition, texture-modified foods, and food shaping. Detailed results are presented and discussed in relation to future policy directions to support implementation of food shaping techniques in aged care. Current nutrition and aged care policy is lacking guidance and direction on how aged care service providers are to implement food shaping methods to improve the nutrition of older people with dysphagia. Further research is needed to identify barriers and facilitators to implementing a range of food-shaping methods in aged care to improve nutrition.
Presenters
Lily ChenPhD Candidate, Health, University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Deborah Debono
Bronwyn Hemsley
Head of Speech Pathology, Graduate School of Health, Speech Pathology, The University of Technology Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Diversity Over Time: Changes in Individual, Organizational, and Place Contexts
KEYWORDS
Food shaping, Nutrition, Texture modified food, Dysphagia, Aged care, Policy
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