Home caregiver strategies for feeding older adults with dysphagia after dehospitalization.
Mariana Souza Belmonte, Larissa Chaves Pedreira, Nildete Pereira Gomes and 3 others
PMID 38808907WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers described cooking food longer, blending it smooth, keeping older adults sitting up, and cleaning mouths after meals.
Some did not remember discharge instructions and could not access speech therapy, so oral feeding changes sometimes happened without professional guidance.
Key findings
01Caregivers reported practical strategies for feeding: preparing softer or blended food, offering it slowly, keeping the older adult sitting, and cleaning the mouth after meals.
02Some caregivers said they did not remember the instructions given during hospitalization, but they could still describe concrete feeding steps after returning home.
03Caregivers recognized that choking or coughing meant a speech therapy assessment was needed, but they did not know how to access or pay for that care, and a family changed from gastrostomy to oral feeding without professional guidance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Eight caregivers from a university hospital in Brazil, caring for older adults with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, so the themes may not apply to other settings or conditions. The study asked caregivers to report their strategies; it did not observe feeding or measure aspiration, nutrition, dehydration, or readmission. Interviews were remote and required internet, and two eligible caregivers withdrew because they did not have internet access. The caregivers were mostly female, black, low-income, and high-school educated. The study describes caregiver reports rather than patient outcomes, so it cannot show that any strategy prevented choking, aspiration, or hospital readmission.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not state a funding or conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the caregivers' described strategies as proven safe or effective. This small qualitative study did not compare groups or measure aspiration, nutrition, or hospital readmission, and some families changed feeding without professional guidance.