Abstract
Studies on aspects of nutrition in patients with congestive heart failure have focused the nutritional status. Problems related to eating have been covered to a much lesser extent. The aim of this pilotstudy was to study the patients' functional eating capacity, the process of eating and the experience of eating. The respondents were at the age of 65 + and suffered from severe congestive hearth failure. Data were collected by means of physical investigation of the oral cavity; experience of food, appetite, hunger, using semantic differentials, observations of two meals per patient and interviews of patients after each meal. The result showed that the patients had detailed opinions about what they could eat and how and experienced a changed taste for food and eating during the progress of the disease. The appetite was reduced, they did not experience hunger any more, they felt very dry in their mouth and extremely tired, physically as well as existentially. None of the patients were able to eat a whole portion of food and they felt physically tired after the meals.
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