Diet satisfaction and associated factors among adult surgical orthopaedic inpatients at a teaching hospital in Lusaka province, Zambia; a hospital-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Poor quality of food services in hospital contributes to low diet satisfaction among inpatients in both developed and developing countries. However, there is paucity of literature on diet satisfaction in health care facilities in the sub-Saharan region and in particular Zambia. Therefore, this study sought to assess levels of diet satisfaction among adult surgical orthopaedic inpatients at a teaching hospital in Lusaka province, Zambia. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of three months. Comprehensive sampling was used to select 98 study participants. A researcher-administered questionnaire adapted from a similar study was used to collect data. The instrument used in this study had 9 aspects of satisfaction. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were used to analyze the data. Chi-square test was used to test for associations between categorical data. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: In this study, 64.3% of surgical orthopaedic inpatients were not satisfied with overall quality of hospital food. In addition, 76.5, 96.9, 65.3 and 71.4% of the patients were not satisfied with type, variety, appearance and taste of hospital food respectively. However, patients who were satisfied with portion size, temperature and time of meal distribution were 67.3, 94.9 and 56.1% respectively. There was no significant association between variables of age, sex, education level, marital status, monthly income, days in hospital and overall satisfaction (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Low diet satisfaction is a global problem associated with poor quality of hospital meals. Although the majority of surgical orthopaedic inpatients were not satisfied with more than half of the dimensions of diet satisfaction, they were satisfied with aspects of portion size, temperature and time of meal distribution. Therefore, an assessment of diet satisfaction can inform hospital administrators and policy makers on the deficiencies in hospital diets and thereby help improve quality of meals.

Satisfaction of Suspected Covid-19 Patients Regarding Meal Services at a Tertiary Care Hospital of North India

“…In a study by Miyoba N and Ogada I, [16] there was no significant association between variables of age, sex, education level, and overall satisfaction (p > 0.05) with the meal served which is similar to the finding in our study. 64.3% of surgical orthopaedic inpatients in the study were not satisfied with overall quality of hospital meal.…”

Exploring patient satisfaction with hospital foodservice: A Swedish study using the Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire

“…Earlier studies have shown no consistent patterns when comparing sociodemographic groups related to satisfaction with hospital foodservice. 2,6,15,16,19,23 In the present study, small but significant differences between groups of patients in terms of sex, age, length of stay and level of food intake were detected. A prolonged hospitalisation seemed to affect the patients' overall satisfaction negatively, and thereby increased the demands on the hospital foodservice.…”

“…4,13 Despite studies from foremost Western countries, 13 additional studies from various countries have emerged with more heterogeneous reports of dissatisfaction, mainly attributed to food quality, communication with staff, and physical environment. [15][16][17] Deeper inquiry through qualitative methods has revealed patient satisfaction in the hospital foodservice setting to be complex. The scoping review by Jonsson et al, 14 focused on qualitative studies with patients older than 65 years.…”

Putting quality food on the tray: Factors associated with patients’ perceptions of the hospital food experience

“…There have been mixed results to date with respect to predictors of patient perceptions of hospital food. Some have suggested patient traits have no effect, [33][34][35][36] whereas others note that gender 23,28,29,37 and age 23,28,29,38,39 are important. Mealtime accessibility challenges, 40 diet type 23,29 and length of stay 23,29,34 also influence perceptions of hospital food.…”

“…Mealtime accessibility challenges, 40 diet type 23,29 and length of stay 23,29,34 also influence perceptions of hospital food. Because most of these studies were conducted at a single site, 23,28,29,[33][34][35][36]38,39 generalisability is limited. Furthermore, some used unvalidated methods of assessing patients' food quality perceptions.…”