Innovative dementia study food for thought

Residents at a Caboolture aged care service have been taking part in landmark research that uses artificial intelligence to help people with dementia continue to enjoy mealtimes.

The research program, ‘What Would You Like to Eat? Supporting Residents with Dementia to Participate in Mealtime Decisions’, is being led by a team of researchers from The University of Queensland and University of Sunshine Coast in collaboration with not-for-profit Lutheran Services.

It aims to encourage people with dementia, who are at higher risk of malnutrition because of increased confusion, to continue to savour food by using artificial intelligence (AI) to create images of appealing meals and spark positive mealtime memories.

St Paul’s Aged Care at Caboolture is taking part in the program, with residents working with researcher Dr Tricia King to identify the best ways to present meals.

Making the most of artificial intelligence

Dr King, a lecturer in photography at UniSC, uses AI to create a series of images of individual meals to find which one is most likely to encourage people with dementia to eat.

The study initially uses text-to-AI images to create prompts to spark food memories in aged care residents to help them continue to enjoy mealtimes as their dementia advances.

Dr King began the first stage of the pilot program at Immanuel Gardens Aged Care before moving to other Lutheran Services’ sites at St Paul’s Caboolture, Woodridge and Laidley.

“The early research is progressing well and I’ve been working with participants asking them how they prefer meals presented and their favourite food memories before co-creating images of meals using AI,’’ Dr King says.

“We discuss their responses to images of food prepared under the Aged Care Standards.

“I record what appeals to them and what doesn’t, if they prefer light or dark tablecloths, steam coming off the food, perhaps a hand visible or images taken from above.

Focus on food choices

“The results will be collated and in the next few months in collaboration with the UQ researchers we will take the first steps to develop AI created images to be used as prompts for food choices of residents in aged care.

“Ultimately, I see the possibility of trialling a visual menu created by AI to be used as a tool for communication to help people with dementia decide what they wish to eat.’’

Using AI to generate the meal images eliminates the need to prepare multiple versions of the same dish to be photographed before being used as prompts.

Lutheran Services executive lead for Aged Care and Quality Tricia Davis says the research gets to the heart of resident wellbeing.

Commitment to excellence

“It’s exciting that this technology may be able help support our residents to live to their potential despite the challenges of dementia,” Tricia says.

“Aged care residents with cognitive decline are at a higher risk of malnutrition because memory loss leads to confusion.

“This pioneering research complements perfectly our commitment to providing excellent food and dining experiences across Lutheran Services’ aged care services, including our evidence-based Happy Table program,’’ she says.

Dr King says photographs are an important tool for her work in aged care settings and she’s excited to bring photography to the study.

“The world is shifting dramatically to AI and as a photographer I saw an opportunity to explore the use of AI-generated images to engage people with different levels of cognitive decline,’’ Dr King explains.

“I was thrilled to be invited to join this project with my colleagues Dr Mikaela Wheeler and Dr Danielle Cave, who have clinical and research expertise as dietitians in residential aged care.