Premorbid nutritional status and development of nutrition software for ischemic stroke patients

Abstract

An investigation entitled ‘Pre morbid nutritional status and development of nutrition software for Ischemic stroke patients’ was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2017-2022. The objectives were to assess pre morbid nutritional status and the short-term functional outcomes of the ischemic stroke patients as well as to develop a nutrition software and explore its effectiveness in diet planning. The investigation was carried out in four phases (i) Development of Food Frequency Preference Questionnaire (ii) Pilot Study (iii) Development of the nutrition software (iv) Main study for eliciting data regarding the food and life style of the patients and imparting diet counselling using the developed nutrition software with menu plan brochure and to evaluate the impact of diet counselling . The study was conducted among the ischemic stroke patients admitted at Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram after obtaining ethical committee clearance. Total 120 ischemic stroke patients were recruited (20 patients for pilot study and 100 patients for main study) for the study. The sample was categorized as intervention (50)and control group(50) using block randomization method' A food frequency and preference questionnaire were developed. Validity of the questionnaire was established through internal consistency and construct validity in a pilot study of 20 selected ischemic patients. Recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of ICMR (2010), recipes, diet and other related data were provided as input to design and develop the Stroke Nutrition Software Smartphone APP. The developed App has the ability to calculate the nutritional requirement and produce daily menus of patients automatically. Also, it serves as an electronic medical dietetic record and it can produce daily reports regarding portion and quantities of meals. Out of 100 selected ischemic stroke patients, 75 per cent were males. Hypertension and diabetes (42 %) were the major morbidity reported, 52 per cent were found to be overweight and 19 per cent as obese. Poor dietary intake with low frequency of fruits and vegetables and high frequency of cereals, snacks items were also reported. Only twenty per cent of them practiced regular exercise, 19 per cent were regular alcoholic drinkers and 26 per cent were regular smokers. The study also showed that 77 % had psychological stress with sedentary lifestyle pattern (64%). Fifty-six percent had irregular meal pattern and 56 % did not eat breakfast regularly.