Effectiveness of collaboration in older adults: do interprofessional teams improve nutritional status more compared to usual care?

Abstract

Background Ageing is accompanied by many changes that make it more difficult for nutritional needs to be met. Management of malnutrition in older adults requires collaboration among multiple clinical disciplines. Objective This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of interprofessional collaboration and practice (IPCP) implementation for older adults with malnutrition compared to usual care. Methods This was a quasi-experimental study using an untreated control group design with dependent pretest and posttest sample of older adults with malnutrition. The intervention group worked as a team to give the intervention based on their own roles and responsibilities. The older adults of the control group received usual care from primary health care. Outcome measurement of nutritional status used the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Results The study results show significant differences between before and after IPCP implementation in the intervention group which had better scores of MNA after implementation. In the control group, there was no significant difference between before and after implementation of usual care. The statistical analysis showed there was a significant difference between the control and intervention groups who had improved nutritional status after IPCP implementation. IPCP had strong correlation with nutritional status based on correlation analysis. These results demonstrate that the collaboration by more than one health profession can improve nutritional status better than usual daily care. Conclusion IPCP has a strong and significant correlation with the nutritional status in older adults. The IPCP implementation could significantly improve their nutritional status after the IPCP implementation compared to usual care.

Interprofessional Treatment of Malnutrition and Sarcopenia by Dietitians and Physiotherapists: Exploring Attitudes, Interprofessional Identity, Facilitators, Barriers, and Occurrence

“… 3 However, hardly any research has been conducted on interprofessional practice and nutritional management. Only one paper 4 reported on the effectiveness of interprofessional collaboration and practice implementation for older adults with malnutrition compared to usual care. In that study, a collaborative team of primary health care providers consisting of a physician, dentist, nurse, dietitian and pharmacist who provided interprofessional care of malnutrition among older adults, were compared with an untreated control group design.…”