The Southampton Mealtime Assistance Roll-out Trial

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Volunteer Mealtime Assistants
• Interventions: Behavioral: Volunteer mealtime assistance

• Registration Number: NCT02229019
• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Brief Summary

The Southampton Mealtime Assistance Study aims to determine whether it is feasible and acceptable to introduce trained volunteers as mealtime assistants in five different departments of one large hospital.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2014-08
• Study First Submitted: 2014-08-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2014-08-27
• Study First Posted: 2014-08-29
• Primary Completion: 2016-03
• Study Completion: 2016-07
• Status Verified: 2016-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2016-10-12
• Last Update Posted: 2016-10-13

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 258

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients over the age of 70 years admitted to one of the wards under study

Exclusion Criteria

• Patients with active bowel pathology
• Patients in the terminal phase of their life
• Patients who are artificially fed (parenterally or enterally)

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Volunteer mealtime assistance	Volunteer mealtime assistance	Trained volunteers will provide mealtime assistance to older hospital inpatients at one mealtime each weekday.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Feasibility and acceptability of volunteer mealtime assistants in different hospital departments	16 months	Is it feasible to recruit and sustain sufficient volunteers to provide mealtime assistance across a large hospital trust? Are these volunteers acceptable to patients, relatives, and staff? This will be determined by recording the number of volunteers recruited, trained and assessed and by recording their activity, in numbers of mealtimes assisted per week and duration of volunteering. If a volunteer discontinues their role, the reasons will be identified for this.; Acceptability will be assessed through qualitative methods- interviews with patients and relatives and focus groups with nursing staff and volunteers.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in food choice and dietary intake before and after the introduction of volunteer mealtime assistants	16 months	The food choices and dietary intake of patients on the wards under study will be determined twice prior to the introduction of the volunteers and twice after their introduction. This will take place at the mealtime where the volunteers are assisting. The weight of meals served is portion controlled by the hospital caterers to within 10% of the stated weight. Therefore, using these stated weights and by measuring the leftover weight of food, we will calculate each patient's dietary intake at that mealtime.
Costs to the hospital trust associated with implementing a volunteer mealtime assistance programme	16 months	Staff costs in terms of time spent training and supporting volunteers will be recorded, as will any consumables required for the study. The costs will be totalled to provide an overall cost estimate of implementing a volunteer mealtime assistance programme.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Southampton General Hospital; 🇬🇧 Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom