Recruiting

Eating Matters Program

Sponsor:

Joseph Brant Hospital

Code:

NCT04445883

Conditions

Food Intake

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 65+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Feeding Assistance

Study Details

Brief summary:

This research study will determine the impact of the Eating Matters Program on the nutritional status of elderly patients at Joseph Brant Hospital. The Eating Matters Program at Joseph Brant Hospital is a volunteer-based feeding assistance program that aims to improve patients' nutritional intake by providing assistance during mealtimes. As research on the impact of such programs on food intake is limited in Canada, this study will explore how the Eating Matters Program influences protein and energy intake of patients at Joseph Brant Hospital. Further, this study will explore if the hypothesized increase in protein and energy intake with the initiation of the Eating Matters Program is correlated with a decreased risk of malnutrition.

Conditions

Food Intake

Study ID

NCT04445883

Start date

Jun 20, 2024

Status verified date

Aug, 2025

Completion date

Oct 30, 2025

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 30, 2025

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 65+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients 65 years and over admitted to Medicine and Rehabilitation units at Joseph Brant Hospital with an anticipated stay 10-14 days
  • Patients with a Subjective Global Assessment score of B or C, and identified to require eating assistance
  • Patients able to provide consent or have a Power of Attorney to do so on their behalf

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients that are NPO status (nothing by mouth)
  • Patients that require enteral or total parenteral feeding
  • Palliative care patients
  • Severe cognitive impairment

Study Design

Enrollment

80 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Non randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Study Group A

Study group A will include patients from the medical unit on 6S100 in addition to the Rehab units on 6N400/500. Participants in Study Group A will be receiving mealtime assistance from volunteers via the Eating Matters Program.

no intervention: Control Group B

Control Group B will include participants from the Rehab Unit on 4N400 and the Medical unit on 6S200.

Interventions

Feeding Assistance

Patients will be receiving assistance during mealtimes. This includes assistance by opening packages, listing/explaining the food products on the tray, providing encouragement and companionship during mealtimes and directly feed patients.

Primary outcome measure

  • Dietary Intake [ Time Frame: To assess a change from baseline to energy and protein intake post program initiation at the one and two week mark (+/-2days). ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Diala Chayab, MPH, RD

9056323737dchayab@josephbranthospital.ca

Ahmadi, PhD

519-432-8353lahmadi@uwo.ca

Locations

Joseph Brant Hospital

Recruiting

Burlington, Ontario, Canada, L7S 0A2

Contacts

Diala Chayab, MPH, RD

905-632-3737dchayab@josephbranthospital.ca

More Information

Sponsor

Joseph Brant Hospital

Last update posted

Aug 27, 2025

Last verified

Aug, 2025

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Joseph Brant Hospital on 2025-08-27.