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People with dementia are at high risk of malnutrition as a result of progressive symptoms that affect eating. Maximising opportunities to enhance nutrition and strategies to encourage eating are a crucial part of providing care. Caregiver knowledge and a person-centred approach to eating is essential to reduce symptom burden and maintain quality of life. There is currently limited research investigating first person perceptions of eating with dementia, particularly beyond small sample sizes. Therefore, this paper aims to explore community perceptions of how best to encourage eating for people with dementia using findings from an online course. Within the Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course, responses to the following statement were collected: 'If I had dementia, the things that might help me to eat include…'. A total of 3,651 participant responses were collected from the 2018 and 2019 course enrolments and analysed using structural topic modelling and secondary thematic analysis. The majority of participants were female, tertiary educated Australians over 50 years old. A third were paid caregivers. Thirteen topics were isolated from topic modelling that can be reduced into six broad categories: food type personalisation, meal choice, meal presentation, eating environment, eating assistance and end of life nutrition. Participant responses demonstrated diverse awareness of important aspects to encourage eating in dementia. Findings support the need for improved uptake of nutritional strategies in practice and education on eating with dementia to support caregivers.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	dementia, eating, perception, qualitative, massive open online course
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Nutrition and dietetics
Research Field:	Food properties (incl. characteristics and health benefits)
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Evaluation of health and support services
Objective Field:	Health education and promotion
UTAS Author:	Goodwin, I (Miss Isabelle Goodwin)
UTAS Author:	Lea, E (Dr Emma Lea)
UTAS Author:	Bindoff, A (Mr Aidan Bindoff)
UTAS Author:	Doherty, K (Dr Kathleen Doherty)
ID Code:	150487
Year Published:	2022
Deposited By:	Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre
Deposited On:	2022-06-17
Last Modified:	2022-12-09
Downloads:	9 View Download Statistics