Undernutrition is an extensive problem among patients in community care services. The literature identifies several barriers that hinder health professionals in identifying nutritional problems and providing nutrition interventions. We developed Appetitus, a tablet application (app) focused on nutrition for older adults. Patients used the app, advised by healthcare professionals. In this study with qualitative design, we explored experiences and perspectives of healthcare professionals who used Appetitus when providing home care. We interviewed 24 healthcare professionals individually and in focus groups. We subjected the data to qualitative content analysis. Healthcare professionals used Appetitus as a mediator in dialogues with patients about nutrition. Giving the older adults an active role in nutrition assessment afforded opportunities to strengthen their involvement in care. Registrations of food and drink consumption gave the healthcare professionals insight into patients’ situations and revealed problems of which the healthcare professionals had not been aware. Based on their experience with Appetitus, healthcare professionals suggested using electronic tools to assess and document the nutritional situation of a larger patient group in home care. In future use of Appetitus, healthcare professionals’ levels of knowledge and confidence when advising patients about nutrition must be emphasised and addressed. Barriers such as time constraints and limited continuity of care are also areas that require attention when new nutrition practices are implemented.
The recently developed app APPETITT can inspire to a varied diet and increase the attention to dietary habits for home-dwelling elderly. Objective: To assess if the application was sufficiently adapted to the elderly inexperienced users of technology, and if the application had potential to contribute to encouragement and orientation about meals.Method: We did a pilot study in spring 2014. Four elderly used APPETITT for four weeks. Data was collected in a focus group interview and the informants demonstrated how they used APPETITT.Results: The informants used APPETITT daily and considered it easy to use. Meal suggestions presented as pictures inspired and influenced to some extent the informants' meal choices. Two informants found that reporting food choices could increase awareness, while two saw little need for this function in the prototype. The pilot test revealed that notification of meals did not work as anticipated; only one of them had paid attention to the notifications. INTRODUCTIONThe proportion of elderly in the Norwegian population will continue to increase in the coming decades (1). Health authorities thus encourage municipalities to focus on the development of competence and innovative service with novel technologies to meet the municipal health services' challenges related to the increasingly elderly population (1, 2).Welfare technology solutions as a part of the health services are important contributions to the national effort to help the elderly live independently and safely in their own homes as long as possible (1-4). Welfare technology focussing on promoting health and prevention through new communication possibilities, information collection and support for self-care, is called health-enabling technology (4, 5). Tablet computers are considered intuitive and easy to use, also for the elderly, and are therefore attractive for technological health-enabling solutions (6, 7). It may nevertheless be challenging to introduce this kind of technology to the elderly. Some studies point out that elderly have low motivation, self-management expectations, and technological experience, raising the threshold for starting to use technology (3,8). The cost of the tablet computer and loss of physical function may affect the elderly's introduction to using modern technology. They may need repeated instructions and follow-up during a training period (3,(8)(9)(10). Studies, in which elderly have been introduced to technology using a touch screen, show that the elderly often master this kind of technology. However, individuals with cognitive impairment have greater challenges and more limited possibilities for learning to use the technology independently (6-8,10, 11). Use of a tablet and applications may also be influenced by the applications' design, interactions and whether the topics for the app are considered interesting and relevant (6,7,10,11).From a nursing perspective, the purpose of the study was to explore whether the tablet application APPETITT (APPlikasjon for Eldre, TIltak mot vekTTap [Application...
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