Older adults in a hospital environment: opening of packaging

Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia aimed to determine the impact of food and beverage packaging on the dietary intakes of older adults. Malnutrition is a common issue in hospitals that can be often overlooked.
All participants (aged 65 years and over) experienced two conditions which included unopened packaging and pre-opened packaging. Cheese and biscuit packaging were found to be the most difficult to open. The study found that some packaging was more difficult for participants’ to open and any barriers to dietary intake should be minimised to prevent malnutrition. An abstract of a poster presented at 32nd DAA National Conference has been published.
Click here for the abstract (99 kB).

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