The need for a nutrition-related quality-of-life measure

To assess the ability of environmental stress (ES) during adolescence on depression-like behaviors and endocrinology in rats.

Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats before or during puberty were divided into three groups: control group (CON), low-frequency ES group (LF), and high-frequency ES group (HF). ES included water/food deprivation and reversal of day and night. After 4 weeks of ES, the behavioral tests were performed. Plasma concentrations of hormones and peptides were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

ES induced a significant decrease in sucrose preference value in female adolescent rats but not males. In prepubertal rats, the reductions in sucrose preference upon ES were observed without a sex-specific effect. Compared with the CON group, female adolescent rats showed a significant increase, while male adolescent rats showed a significant decrease in plasma corticosterone (CORT) after ES. Also, ES significantly increased plasma leptin in female and male adolescent rats. Moreover, ES significantly increased plasma cholecystokinin (CCK), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and testosterone (TS) levels in adolescent female rats but not in males. No significant differences were found in plasma progesterone and E2 among adolescent rats. The prepubertal male rats showed significant plasma E2 and TS increase after ES, while there were no significant differences between groups in plasma CORT, leptin, CCK, NPY, and progesterone.

ES may cause depression-like behaviors in adolescent female rats. Our findings supplement the scientific basis for formulating strategies to treat and prevent adolescent depression.

Meals-on-wheels in nursing homes are sensory diminished because of the packaging and reheating of the food, which creates less appetite stimulation and an impaired meal experience for nursing home residents. This background is crucial since nursing home residents are a frail and often malnourished group that is physiologically affected by sensory, physical and mental alterations. The study aimed to increase health-related quality of life in nursing home residents receiving meals-on-wheels using an intervention menu with favourite meals that added a culinary twist and were sensory improved by chefs.

A double-blinded cluster-randomized controlled trial with two arms, one group receives an intervention menu, and the other group receives a non-optimized menu. The intervention menu included popular meals-on-wheels (a main meal for dinner and a starter/dessert before or after dinner with culinary improvements). The participants received the same meals without culinary improvements in the control group. Health-related quality of life (EQ5D3L) was the primary outcome of the study. Secondary outcomes were mental and nutritional status and muscle strength. The measurements were assessed at a baseline and end visit (12 weeks after baseline visit).

Fifty-two nursing home residents were included in the study (There are 20 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group). Following the principle of intention-to-treat, a significant decreasing effect (p-value 0.026) was found between the groups on health-related quality of life. The treated group experienced the largest decrease from the baseline to the end visit. The intervention group had a significant decrease in the second item on Satisfaction With Food-related Life (SWFL2) (I am very pleased with my food). No changes were found either within or between the groups, on the rest of the measured parameters.

Nursing home residents are a target group experiencing natural aggravation, why the health-related quality of life might be difficult to improve using a culinary meal intervention. The decreasing effect of Satisfaction With Food-related Life found in the intervention group could be related to these older adults being too unfamiliar with the culinary twist added to the intervention menu.

The study was registered on ClinTrials.gov (Identifier NCT03133364).

Although multiple factors contribute to health status, nutrition is one of the major determinants of successful aging. Food not only is critical to one’s physiological well-being, but as research has shown, also contributes to social, cultural, and psychological quality of life. Dietary intake and nutritional status not only play a major role in the overall quality of health of older people, but also have an impact on their satisfaction with life. As discussed in this chapter, the type of food eaten and the social cultural context all make significant contributions to older people’s satisfaction with their quality of life. Furthermore, it has been shown that among older people eating is among the most important activities of daily living. Meals add a sense of security, meaning, and structure to an older adult’s day, providing feelings of independence and control and a sense of mastery over his/her environment. This chapter discusses older people’s satisfaction with food and quality of life as it relates to factors such as income level, gender, social connections, and education level. This chapter also looks at older people’s food-related satisfaction with life, identifying some of the determinants and barriers to satisfaction with food-related quality of life, and discusses possible ways of enhancing older people’s quality of life in the domain of food.

This paper introduces the conceptualization and measurement of quality of life, well-being, and wellness. Wellness, quality of life and well-being refer to the positive, subjective state that is opposite to illness. Thus, wellness is not the just absence of disease and the absence of illness; it is a separate positive state. Quality of life, well-being, and wellness are often discussed and described in terms of a multidimensional model. The strongest dimensions are physical, social, emotional/psychological, intellectual, and spiritual. The measurement of these positive dimensions of health have produced literally thousands of different measures, but most of them have been developed in a clinical setting and have been applied to specific disease conditions. Many of the existing clinical measures of wellness, well-being, and quality of life are very long, often over 100 items, and not suited to consumer research. Measures of quality of life and of well-being have focused on overall functioning. Quality of life of measures have been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and translated in many languages. Subjective well being has been defined as the combination of positive-negative affect balance and satisfaction with life, and is measured with two standard measures of these attributes. Wellness has largely been measured in the fields of clinical and counseling psychology; one new product oriented measure is the WellSense™ Profile (King et al., 2015). Wellness, well-being, and quality of life can be important additions to the measures studied in consumer perception of food and other consumer products.

To systematically review the literature to examine whether there has been adequate assessment of the effects of dietary intervention on quality of life (QOL) independent of weight loss, assess which instruments are being used to measure nutrition-related QOL, identify gaps in the literature, and suggest future directions.

Systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement.

A total of 24 studies were eligible for inclusion. The Short Form–36 Health Survey was the most widely used instrument to assess QOL. Other disease-specific instruments were used. Several different dietary approaches (eg, low carbohydrate, low calorie, low fat, combinations) were recommended. Across studies, QOL generally improved after participating in behavioral weight loss interventions, but findings revealed a lack of evidence to definitively determine whether reported changes in QOL were a result of weight loss or independent of it.

It is important to consider how making broad dietary recommendations for all individuals might affect overall QOL in both positive and negative directions when considering factors other than weight loss and health improvement. If dietary interventions are adversely affecting QOL in other domains (eg, social, economic) and this relationship is not being detected or reported by current research practices, barriers for successful and sustainable dietary changes may not be fully understood.

Crohn's Disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which may result in nutrition problems that impact on patient health, nutritional status and quality of life. Subjective reports of how IBD patients experience these problems as part of their disease process, including comparisons between patient groups, or the need for tailored nutrition advice as perceived by these patients, have not been widely studied. This survey aimed to identify and explore nutritional problems that are important to CD and UC patients and to investigate their views on the IBD health services provided to help them with these.

Eighty-seven IBD patients were invited to take part in a nutrition survey using face-to-face questionnaire interviews. The survey asked about food and nutrition problems that patients have experienced, identifying which were most significant and the extent to which they had been addressed by the clinical service.

Seventy-two IBD patients completed the evaluation (47 CD, 25 UC). Of these, 45 (62.5%) felt that food and nutrition were either ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ in their experience of IBD, and 59 (82%) reported problems with food and nutrition. Patients with CD and UC reported similar frequencies of most nutritional problems. However, 44 (94%) CD vs. 16 (64%) UC patients reported problems with weight (p = 0.002). Less than half of patients had seen a dietitian for tailored nutritional advice to address these problems.

Nutritional problems experienced and reported by IBD patients are numerous and varied. They are considered important by patients with CD and UC, both of whom would generally value specific dietary counselling, highlighting a need for further research in this area and adequate and equal provision of services for both groups.