Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify "improvable feeding difficulties" for the institutionalized elderly with dementia and to explore effect on arranging the environment. The subjects were 16 demented elderly with feeding difficulties. The intervention and non-intervention groups were matched by the severity of feeding difficulties, sex, and age. The six-month prospective intervention study was based on re-arranging the environment. Self-feeding was increased in the intervention group, from 30.7 % to 66.8% with severe feeding difficulties and from 97.0% to 98.9% with moderate feeding difficulties at the initial and final evaluations, respectively. Subjects with more severe feeding difficulties were found to be more readily affected by excessive environmental stimuli. Conversely, their self-feeding behaviors were more sensitive to the arrangement of their environment. Effective interventions to improve feeding difficulties included, (a) enhancing subjects' self-care agency, (b) arrangement of the physical and social environmental factors. Interventions creating suitable modifications of the environment dose enhance self-feeding behaviors in institutionalized elderly patients with dementia, thus contributing to their quality of life.
