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Effectiveness of culinary nutrition workshops on the mood and nutritional interest of inpatients with mental disorder
Improving the general health of people with mental illnesses requires promoting good eating via nutrition education. This study by Vaqué-Crusellas et al. (2024) is to assess how hospitalized individuals with mental disorders (MD) in the acute psychiatric units of two general hospitals in Catalonia, Spain, are feeling and how interested they are in nutrition after participating in gourmet nutrition workshops. MD patients (n = 81) who were admitted as inpatients participated in a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) and were randomly divided into two groups: one group attended weekly culinary nutrition workshops with flexible participation, while the other continued with standard care. Participants were evaluated using a visual analog scale, measuring mood shifts before, during, and after each session, as well as at the conclusion of the intervention period. Participant satisfaction with the workshops was also evaluated through a custom questionnaire. The authors found that participants had a mean age of 45.3 years (SD: 17.0), of whom 66.7% were women. A total of 41 individuals were allocated to the intervention group, while 40 were assigned to the control group. At the conclusion of each workshop on culinary nutrition, the mood of the intervention group significantly improved. However, no significant differences were observed in mood changes between the two groups after the entire intervention period. Furthermore, nutritional interest was found to be substantially increased in the intervention group compared to the control group following the intervention, as seen through participants providing high ratings for the intervention’s content, environment, and professionalism, with scores exceeding 9 in these categories. The enhancement of nutritional interest and high satisfaction with the culinary nutrition workshops among hospitalized individuals with MD highlight the importance of developing more extensive RCTs in hospital and rehabilitation settings. [NPID: Cooking, culinary, nutrition education, nutrition, culinary nutrition workshops, mood, interest in nutrition, mental disorder, mental health, inpatient psychiatry]
Year: 2024
