Telenutrition for the management of inflammatory bowel disease: Benefits, limits, and future perspectives

Abstract

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) require lifelong and personalized care by a multidisciplinary healthcare team. However, the traditional medical model is not ideal for patients who require continuous close monitoring and whose symptoms may dramatically worsen between regularly scheduled visits. Additionally, close dietary follow-up and monitoring of IBD in a traditional setting are challenging because of the disease complexity, high pressure on outpatient clinics with a small number of IBD specialist dietitians, and rising incidence. Given the significant burden of IBD, there is a need to develop effective dietary management strategies. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic caused an unprecedented shift from in-person care to delivering health care via technological remote devices. Traditional nutrition therapy and consultation can be provided by telenutrition through remote electronic communication applications that could greatly benefit patient care. Telenutrition might be useful, safe, and cost-effective compared with standard care. It is likely that virtual care for chronic diseases including IBD will continue in some form into the future. This review article summarizes the evidence about telenutrition applications in the management of IBD patients, and we gave an overview of the acceptance and impact of these interventions on health outcomes.

Summary of the best evidence on self-management support schemes for patients with inflammatory bowel disease based on mobile health systems

“…Nevertheless, the limited number of clinical IBD healthcare workers and the demanding workload of outpatient services make it challenging to deliver comprehensive offline nutritional support. 42 Fortunately, the continuous advancement of information technology has given rise to mobile health systems, facilitating online nutrition support. Healthcare workers can now offer patients professional nutrition knowledge and dietary guidance through online platforms, thereby enhancing patients’ ability to manage their nutrition effectively.…”

Web Based Online Nutrition Consultation System (Telenutrition) at the Nutrition Care Center eaching Factory (NCC-TEFA)

“…Therefore, appropriate intervention is needed to reduce these nutritional problems through online nutrition consultations (telenutrition). Telenutrition is believed to provide benefits to clients, facilitate for nutritionists, and is more cost-effective compared to offline nutrition consultation services [10]- [14]. Previous research has proven that telenutrition is effective in obese and stunted patients [15]- [18].…”

Telemedicine in inflammatory bowel diseases: A new brick in the medicine of the future?

“…Thus, telenutrition can investigate various aspects such as weight history, food intolerance, diet setting, evaluation of diet response, hunger assessment, monitoring, and therapeutic adjustments of enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy[ 75 ]. However, in the available studies, the study design was not always explicitly outlined for the remote assessment of nutritional status.…”