Socialize, Eat More, and Feel Better: Communal Eating in Acute Neurological Care.
Melissa D Stockbridge, Mona N Bahouth, Elizabeth K Zink and 1 others
PMID 36634329WHAT IT FOUND
Communal lunches were safe and feasible in acute stroke care.
Patients attending two or more sessions reported trends toward less loneliness and better quality of life, but no significant changes in communication or food intake were proven.
Key findings
01A communal eating program in a stroke hospital was feasible and without safety issues.
02Patients who attended two or more sessions showed non-significant trends toward improvement in loneliness and quality of life.
03There was no significant difference in the amount of food eaten or in communication metrics like utterance length or complexity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was a small pilot with only 19 participants, making it underpowered to detect true effects. Most sessions had only one patient, failing to create a true communal group dynamic. The study was suspended early due to the pandemic, leading to missing follow-up data. Patients who declined to participate or could not attend were not included, potentially biasing the results toward those who were already more isolated or had lower quality of life at baseline. No control group was used, so improvements cannot be definitively attributed to the intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that communal lunches improve communication or food intake. The trends toward better quality of life were not statistically significant, and the study was too small and interrupted to prove that the intervention works.