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Using a verbal prompt to increase protein consumption in a hospital setting: a field study

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, September 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (82nd percentile)

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48 Mendeley
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Title
Using a verbal prompt to increase protein consumption in a hospital setting: a field study
Published in
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, September 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12966-015-0271-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lotte D. T. van der Zanden, Harmen van Essen, Ellen van Kleef, René A. de Wijk, Hans C. M. van Trijp

Abstract

Sufficient protein intake among hospitalized patients may contribute to faster recovery and a decrease in healthcare costs. Nevertheless, hospitalized patients are often found to consume too little protein. This field study explored the success of a small, inexpensive intervention adapted from the marketing literature, to encourage protein consumption among hospitalized patients. The study was performed at a hospital where patients order food by calling to the meal service. The intervention consisted of a verbal prompt: "Would you like some [target product] with that?", which was presented to patients by trained telephone operators, after patients finished ordering their lunch. Target products were two foods rich in protein; fruit quark and yoghurt drink. For half of the patients, the verbal prompt was preceded by verbal praise on their lunch order, which was aimed to increase compliance with the verbal prompt. Three hundred and fifteen hospitalized patients, aged 18-87 years took part in the study. Verbal prompts significantly increased ordering of the target products nearly sevenfold (from ordering by 6.5 % of patients to 45.2 % of patients). Protein content of ordered lunch and all food orders of the day combined showed a trend, with orders of patients receiving only a verbal prompt or a verbal prompt and verbal praise containing a larger amount of protein than lunch orders of patients in the control condition. At an individual level, protein content of ordered food increased significantly, reaching the 25-30 g of protein per main meal recommended by dieticians of the hospital. Verbal praise did not increase compliance with the verbal prompt. Patients consumed most or all of the target product and verbal prompts were not perceived to be obtrusive. Although changing eating patterns is challenging, this study shows that simple interventions such as verbal prompts may be useful tools for health professionals to stimulate healthy food consumption among patients during hospitalization.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 13 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 48 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Netherlands 1 2%
Unknown 47 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 9 19%
Student > Postgraduate 4 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 4 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 6%
Student > Bachelor 2 4%
Other 9 19%
Unknown 17 35%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 6 13%
Psychology 5 10%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 4 8%
Medicine and Dentistry 4 8%
Social Sciences 4 8%
Other 7 15%
Unknown 18 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 July 2017.
All research outputs
#3,376,912
of 23,511,526 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
#1,129
of 1,972 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#46,921
of 273,814 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
#29
of 35 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,511,526 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 85th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,972 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 28.7. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 273,814 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 35 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 20th percentile – i.e., 20% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.