Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a broad multidimensional concept linked to nutritional status in older adults. This study aimed to estimate the impact of an educational video on nutrition on HRQoL among older adults during the first 3 months following their discharge from a surgical department, in preparation for a full-scale trial. METHOD: We conducted a single-centre randomised parallel-group pilot trial in which the participants were recruited from three surgical departments in a non-university hospital in northern Norway. A nutrition educational video was sent to the intervention group 5 days following their discharge from the hospital. Outcomes included the effect size of the eight subscales of HRQoL on a scale from 0 to 100 using the Norwegian version of the RAND 36-item short form health survey, the response rate of the Rand 36 survey and the feasibility of using block randomisation to ensure similarity between the intervention and control groups. RESULTS: Forty-four participants were recruited over 7 months, with 24 assigned to the intervention group and 20 assigned to the control group. Thirty participants completed the study, with 17 in the intervention group and 13 in the control group. The response rate was 100%, and block randomisation ensured an equal ratio between the intervention and control groups. When comparing health-related quality of life at baseline and at 3 months, those who had seen the video (n = 6) seemed to have witnessed an increase in mental health by 13 ± 10, compared to 3 ± 22 in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the nutrition educational video improved the mental health of disease-related malnourished older adults 3 months following their discharge from hospital. Since none of the HRQoL analyses reached statistical significance, the results are exploratory and could not be interpreted as evidence of an intervention effect. A full-scale trial is necessary to fully assess the video's impact on HRQoL. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05860140 in ClinicalTrials.gov (retrospectively registered 17 April 2023). URL of trial: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05860140 .