Poor food intake is known to lead to malnutrition in long-term care, but determinants of food intake are not fully understood, hampering the development of interventions to maintain the nutritional status of residents.  Our speaker is Professor. Heather Keller, the Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition & Aging at the University of Waterloo. This webinar is based on her research regarding resident, unit, staff, and facility variables associated with food intake and strategies for improving food intake.

Professor Keller’s research programs cross the continuum of care and are focused on improving the nutritional status and food intake of older adults. Four areas are emphasized: nutrition care processes (e.g. screening programs), meal quality (e.g. menu planning, improving pureed food), meal access (e.g. family involvement at mealtimes), and mealtime experience (e.g. training to improve mealtimes). As Co-Chair of the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force (CMTF), Professor Keller leads an interprofessional team focused on improving the identification and treatment of malnutrition. Current projects involve knowledge translation focused on improving care processes resulting from findings of the More-2-Eat study. Professor Keller also leads the Making the Most of Mealtimes (M3) research program focused on improving food intake in residents living in long term care. An interprofessional team from across Canada has conducted the most comprehensive prevalence study that identifies determinants of food intake amenable to change. As a scientist with the Agri-food for Healthy Aging research group, she has conducted research focused on improving pureed food and nutrient quality of food products for residents in LTC. Nutrition risk screening tools (Canadian Nutrition Screening Tool and SCREENIII) have recently been validated, supporting efficient screening in hospital and community settings. Nutri-eSCREEN, a self-management site for older adults based on SCREENII is in the process of being evaluated.

This Webinar is a non-commercial presentation sponsored by ZurickDavis

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