Oral Nutritional Supplements and Taste Adherence in Malnourished Elderly Adult’s Outpatients

Abstract

The aim of our study was to evaluate a hypercaloric sweet milkbased oral nutrition supplement in a prospective 3 day-study designed to assess the taste preferences of this oral nutritional supplement (ONS) in elderly malnourished out-patients and the influence on adherence in daily intake during two months.A total of 28 out-patients with recent weight loss were included in this study. One flavour (chocolate, vanilla or strawberry) was administered each day in a random way during three consecutive days. In the first three days, patients were asked to fulfill two questionnaires in order to reflect ONS tolerance and acceptance. Sweet and aftertaste were better for chocolate flavour than for vanilla or strawberry flavours. Patients who chose vainilla took a total of 96.3+7.4 average bricks during outpatient followup (1.60+0.3 per day), patients who chose chocolate took 76.8+15.0 bricks (1.28+0.8 per day) and patients who chose strawberry bricks taken 60.3+19.5 bricks (1.10+0.7 per day), with a significant difference with vainilla flavour (p <0.01). The improvement of weight (vanilla +1.0+0.8 kg vs chocolate +0.5+0.8 kg vs 0.6+1.0 kg:p=0.03), tricipital skinfols (vanilla +1.5+0.3 mm vs chocolate +1.1+0.4 mm vs 0.7+0.3 mm:p=0.03), prealbumin levels (vanilla +4.2+0.8 mg/dl vs chocolate +3.9+0.7 mg/dl vs +3.6+1.0 mg/dl:p=0.01) and transferrin levels (vanilla +100.0+21.8 mg/dl vs chocolate +75.5+18.8 mg/dl vs 63.8+14.1 mg/dl:p=0.03) was higher in patients treated with vanilla ONS than chocolate or strawberry ONS. The three flavoured ONS taste preferences are similar although the consumption is high in vanilla flavoured ONS.