日間照顧中心長者飲水量之可能影響因子探討

The insufficient water intake is common in the elderly. We aimed to explore the associated factors of water intake among the elderly at the day-care center. An observational study was conducted on 25 elderly people in a day care center in New Taipei City from July to August 2017. Data was collected using the care records including the consumption of flavored water (winter melon and wheat tea) and plain-boiled water, timing of water supply, and choking status. We calculated drinking water achievement rate is the ratio of drinking water to supply. Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the Friedman test, Mann-Whitney U test were used to examine the associations by SPSS version 21.0. It is significant existed when p ＜ 0.05. Of all, 8 males (32%) and 17 females (68%). The average daily water drinking achievement rate of the elderly is 83%. There was no significant difference between drinking rate of flavored water (85%) and plain water (81%), p = 0.06. The elderly drink the most water at 9:30 AM. The plain water consumption was significantly higher in shredded diet than that in finely divided diet (p = 0.033). There was no significant difference between the choking status and the water drinking achievement. Water consumption was not differed between food textures. Diet type associates with water consumption. The elders mostly drink water before the receiving care.