Background: Malnutrition and weight loss are highly prevalent in persons with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Oral intake is an important interventional target for addressing these nutritional consequences. However, the efficacy of interventions remains poorly understood as prior syntheses have failed to examine the impact of intervention approaches on malnutrition and hypothesized mechanisms of action in persons with dementia. This review aimed to determine the efficacy of mealtime interventions to improve oral intake and nutritional outcomes in persons with dementia.
Methods: Four databases yielded 1712 studies, resulting in 32 studies that met inclusion criteria.
Results: Studies included education, environmental modifications, feeding, oral supplementation, and other pharmacologic/ecopsychological interventions. While the majority of studies reported statistically significant improvements in at least one nutritional outcome, study design and outcome measures were heterogeneous with many lacking adequate statistical power or blinding. Collectively, we found moderate evidence to suggest the efficacy of oral supplementation, and preliminary evidence to suggest that feeding interventions, education, and environmental modifications may confer improvements.
Conclusions: Findings clarify the state of existing evidence regarding various interventional strategies for improving malnutrition in persons with dementia. While some approaches are promising, adequately powered and rigorously designed multi-dimensional intervention trials are needed to inform clinical decision-making in real-world contexts.