Effect of Healthy Lunch and Snack Meal on Reaction Time and Well-being of Physicians and Nursing Staff (Go-No-Go)

Copenhagen University Hospital at Herlev

Status

Completed

Conditions

Nutrition Intervention

Treatments

Other: Dietary treatment

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01739569

EFFECT.A01.2012

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of increased availability of healthy food and drink during working hours on reaction time and well-being in physicians and nursing staff.

Hospital medical staff often works long and hectic hours, without adequate meal or rest breaks in order to provide 24-hour care. This is a concern, as not only the staff's well-being is important to the individual welfare, but it is also vital to the quality and safety of the care their patients receive. The investigators believe that by focusing on physicians and nursing staffs nutrition the investigators will see a positive effect on staff performance and well-being - and thus ultimately possibly on patient safety.

Hypothesis: The provision of healthy lunch and snack meal during working hours for a period of 4 weeks will improve reaction time and well-being compared to habitual diet in physicians, nurses and nursing assistants.

Full description

The study is designed as a randomised controlled 2 x 4 weeks cross-over trial, initiated with a 1-week run-in period. The study sample will consist of 60 volunteer physicians, nurses and nursing assistants from Herlev University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. A healthy lunch and snack meal meeting the current danish diet recommendations will be delivered daily during all working days in the intervention period. During the control period, the participants are requested to maintain their habitual dietary intake at work. Reaction time will be assessed by reaction time test Go/No-Go, a subtest of Test-battery for Attention Performance. Changes in mood will be measured by the Profile of Mood State questionnaire. In addition, dietary intake, level of physical activity and palatability of the intervention diet will be registered.

Enrollment

60 patients

Sex

All

Ages

20 to 70 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Employed in Herlev University Hospital as physician, nurse or nursing assistant (males and females)
Age 20-70 years
BMI 18,5-30 kg/m2
Work at least 30 h/wk
Have daily contact with patients and/or have responsibilities that may affect patient safety
Primarily work in day- or evening shifts during the study period
Not having any intentions of loosing weight or changing lifestyle habits during the study period
Not suffer from any diseases that might affect dietary intake (e.g. food allergies, food intolerance)
Not dine in the staff canteen, the Diastole, more than once a week
Be able to write and understand the Danish language

Exclusion criteria

For those working >35 h/wk having holiday/ time off duty for more than 9 consecutive days during the study period.
For those working <35 h/wk having holiday/time off duty for more than 5 consecutive days during the study period
Not to be able to attend the planned tests in the study
Pregnancy
Intensive physical exercise (e.g. strength training) > 5 hours/wk
Suffer from food allergies or - intolerance