Home enteral nutrition, i.e., administration of liquid nutritional formula through a feeding tube into the gastrointestinal tract, is provided to older adults who are unable to ingest, digest or absorb adequate nutrients to meet their nutritional and metabolic requirements. The national cost of home enteral nutrition (HEN) is calculated at more than $800,000,000 with Medicare being the single largest payer. Increasing use of HEM in older adults combined with early hospital discharge and lack of insurance reimbursement for nutrition services has fostered reliance on family caregivers to manage HEN. Little is known of the impact HEM family caregiving has on older adult recipients nor on their caregivers. This study aims to establish baseline data in a population of family caregivers and older adult HEN care recipients. In -home interviews with a minimum of 30 dyads will occur at one month and three months after hospital discharge on HEN. Care dyads' perspectives and professional assessment will be used to: (1) determine the unique responsibilities HEN family caregivers undertake; (2) evaluate the adequacy of training family caregivers have to manage HEN; (3) assess the impact HEN family caregiving has on each member of the care dyads' daily life, health, nutritional status and quality of life; and (4) assess changes in HEN family caregiving over time. This data is useful to design and evaluate programs that will empower caregivers to provide effective HEN management that restores older adults' nutritional status, health and functional independence. Effective caregiving may also prevent caregivers from suffering adverse health effects as a result of caregiving. Therefore, effective caregiving may preserve the structure of family caregiving by retaining older adults in the home environment and maintaining the future pool of unpaid family caregivers. It is estimated that family caregiving has a national economic value of $196,000,000,000.
