"It's No Choking Matter!": The Search for Evidence Relating to Home-Delivered, Texture-Modified Meals - A Systematic Literature Review.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Home-delivered meals have been shown to confer benefits conducive to successfully ageing in place. However, little is known about home-delivered, texture-modified meals designed for older community-dwelling people with dysphagia, despite recognition that such individuals are at significant nutritional risk. The purpose of this review is therefore to systematically identify, appraise, and synthesise any existing evidence relating to home-delivered, texture-modified meals for community-dwelling persons with dysphagia. RECENT FINDINGS: A systematic search of the literature was performed across five relevant databases (CINAHL, Medline, Pub Med, Scopus, and Web of Science) to answer the research question, “What is currently known about home-delivered, texture-modified meals for community-dwelling individuals with dysphagia?”. Broad inclusion criteria and minimal limits were applied. Articles were included if they reported upon any outcomes specific to home-delivered, texture-modified meals. Following removal of duplicates, 521 articles were subjected to screening by title and abstract, and 40 to full-text review. No studies of specific relevance to the research question were returned. The findings of this systematic literature review indicate a true gap in the literature and a need to establish a baseline of evidence about home-delivered, texture-modified meals. Doing so will help to ensure that community-dwelling older persons with dysphagia have equitable access to safe and nutritionally adequate meals that support successful ageing in place.