Nutritional Effects of Supplementing Liquid-Formula Diet with Dietary Fiber on Elderly Bed-Ridden Patients
SEIKO WADA, SHIGEYUKI NAKAJI,1 TAKASHI UMEDA,1 IPPEI TAKAHASHI,1 TAKAO OYAMA,1 DAISUKE CHINDA,1 KAZUO SUGAWARA,1 TADASHI SHIMOYAMA,1 JUICHI SAKAMOTO2 and SHINSAKU FUKUDA2
Department of Nursing, Akita Keijo Junior College, Odate 017-0046, 1Department of Hygiene, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, and 2First Department of Internal Medicine, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Hirosaki 036-8562
In the past few decades, the number of bed-ridden elderly patients has been increasing. This group of patients is frequently fed with a liquid formula diet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a liquid formula diet containing dietary fiber (DF) for elderly bed-ridden patients. Eighteen elderly, bed-ridden patients were given L-3 Fiber®, a DF-containing liquid formula diet (DF-LFD), for 4 weeks, while a number of parameters were monitored, including serum levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, total protein, creatinine, uric acid, glucose, sodium, potassium, and calcium, urine protein/sugar, and defecation frequency. Total protein, albumin and total cholesterol significantly increased following the administration of the DF-LFD, associated with an average increase in body weight of 1.94 kg (5.0%). Defecation frequency significantly increased one week after DF-LFD administration was started, but this effect was transient. Although a few patients complained of nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain, no severe side effects were seen. In conclusion, DF-LFD supplementation appears to be beneficial for elderly bed-ridden patients, and can increase nutritional-related parameters, such as body weight, total protein, albumin and total cholesterol, without severe side effects.
keywords —— dietary fiber; cellulose; nutrition; liquid-formula diet; elderly bed-ridden patients
© 2004 Tohoku University Medical Press
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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2004, 203, 9-16
Address for reprints: Shigeyuki Nakaji, Department of Hygiene, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, 5 Zaifu-cho, Hirosaki 036-8562, Japan.
e-mail nakaji@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp