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Tube feeding among elder in long-term care facilities: A systematic review and meta-analysis

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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objective

The use of tube feeding for elderly patients with poor nutritional intake is a ubiquitous method of feeding. This systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out to compare nutritional benefits of enteral feeding versus oral feeding in long-term care facilities.

Setting

Databases including the Cochrane Library, ProQuest, PubMed, EMBASE, EBSCO, Web of Science and Google Scholar through April 2014 using keywords including enteral feeding, tube feeding or oral feeding combined with long term care facilities or nursing home.

Participants

Eight articles, with 841 participants were included in meta-analysis and 13 articles were included in systematic review. The elderly had to live in long-term care institutions and could not be on any mechanically assisted ventilation systems or be in any type of post-operative status.

Measurements

The three investigators extracted and appraised data using the same study design, baseline characteristics, and outcomes, independently.

Results

Following a systematic review, 13 articles out of 8218 original research articles were selected for this analysis. Meta-analysis of tube-fed patients found lower levels of hemoglobin (Weighted Mean Difference (WMD -0.21g/dl; 95% CI -0.42 to -0.01; p=0.04) and creatinine (WMD -0.08g/dl; 95% CI -0.17 to 0.00, p=0.05). Moreover, the results showed that there were no benefits regarding body mass index (BMI), albumin, dietary intake of proteins, total calories and fat.

Conclusions

The results show that tube feeding does not increase patients’ nutrients absorption to improve nutritional status. Instead, these results indicate that oral feeding is better regarding some nutritional biochemical parameters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    S. -H. Lan, W. J. Wu & L. -Y. Lin

  2. Department of Information Management, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, Taiwan

    L. -C. Lu & J. -C. Chen

  3. Department of Oral Hygiene, College of Dental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Y. -Y. Yen

  4. Department of Senior Citizen Service Management, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan

    Y. -P. Hsieh

  5. Department of Healthcare Administration, Asia University, No. 500, Lioufeng Rd., Wufeng District, Taichung City, 41354, Taiwan

    Shou-Jen Lan

  6. College of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    L. -Y. Lin

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  1. S. -H. Lan
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Correspondence to Shou-Jen Lan.

Additional information

Shou-Jen Lan and Long-Yau Lin contributed equally to this study

Shao-Hwan Lan and Li-Chin Lu contributed equally to this study

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Lan, S.H., Lu, L.C., Yen, Y.Y. et al. Tube feeding among elder in long-term care facilities: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Nutr Health Aging 21, 31–37 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-016-0717-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-016-0717-y

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