Watson developed a questionnaire for grading feeding difficulties in patients with dementia. This can help identify patients with potential nutritional problems and can be used to monitor the a patient over time. The author is from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Behaviors shown by the patient:
(1) refuse to eat
(2) turn head away during feeding
(3) refuse to open mouth
(4) spit out food
(5) let food fall out of the mouth
(6) refuse to swallow
Groupings:
(1) behavior indicating refusal to eat (questions 1, 2 and 3)
(2) spitting (question 4)
(3) not swallowing (questions 5 and 6)
The Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (version 1.0, pending modifications) uses these groupings for a graded scale of feeding difficulty.
Description
Response
Grade
no apparent feeding difficulty
no to all questions
0
behavior indicating refusal to eat
yes to question 1, 2 or 3
1
spitting
yes to question 4
2
refusal to eat or inability to swallow
yes in question 5 or 6
3
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