BITE-IT
BITE-IT: Blended Intervention for Frail Elderly
Development and evaluation of a combined physical activity and nutrition intervention for frail elderly people
Every year in the Netherlands, 53,000 frail elderly people are admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation centre for a short period of time. Upon returning home, their rehabilitation is often scaled down and taken over by an outpatient counselling programme or primary care. A large proportion of these frail elderly people experience a decline in physical functioning and self-reliance at home. They benefit from intensive care in terms of nutrition and exercise.
A blended intervention offers opportunities: a combination of online and face-to-face counselling, focusing on healthy exercise and nutrition behaviour. But such an intervention requires customisation. BITE-IT’s project team is therefore developing a blended nutrition and exercise programme for elderly people rehabilitating at home.
OBJECTIVE
To support rehabilitating elderly people and their therapists in optimising physical functioning at home. To this end, researchers are developing and testing a blended nutrition and exercise programme in practice.
Ambulatory and first-line dieticians, physio- and remedial therapists consider blended care promising. Unfortunately, little knowledge is available about which ingredients of blended care work and which do not. We are conducting research into this. This is essential because blended care is also increasingly used in everyday practice.
EXPECTED RESULTS/PRODUCTS
Knowledge on how care professionals can use blended care with elderly people rehabilitating at home.
A blended rehabilitation programme for dieticians, physio- and remedial therapists.
Insight into the feasibility and initial effectiveness of the developed blended rehabilitation programme.
SOCIAL IMPACT
In its report ‘De Juiste Zorg Op De Juiste Plek’, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport emphasises a turnaround in healthcare: the functioning of people in their own living environment should take centre stage. This ties in with the BITE-IT intervention, which focuses on caring for older people in their own home environment.
CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Within the programmes of Nutrition and Dietetics, Physiotherapy and Exercise Therapy, the concepts of self-reliance and self-management form the starting point of action. Blended care is promising in this respect. Using blended care requires a different way of working from students and healthcare professionals. Therefore, the components of this project are embedded in the study programmes of the above-mentioned programmes. Among other things, the project focuses on making care professionals competent in offering blended care, in which technological developments play a major role.