Dementia sufferers can have their eating skills and nutrition improved, an international study has shown.

The study showed that two different training programmes for regaining eating skills reduced patients' difficulty feeding score and improved nutritional assessment. Diffculties eating have been associated with poor quality of life and can result in pressure ulcers and infections.

The research involving academics from the University of Sheffield was published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

"This is just a start, but the study demonstrates that something can be done and it lays the foundation for a promising line of enquiry," said Professor Roger Watson, from the University of Sheffield's School of Nursing and Midwifery, who developed the primary measure for feeding difficulty.

"Nutritional problems of older people with dementia are dangerous for the person with dementia, distressing for friends and relatives and very hard to treat.

 Copyright © Press Association 2010

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