Helping Hand Aged Care in partnership with the University of South Australia and MX3 Diagnostics Pty Ltd has been awarded an ARIIA grant for their project ‘Embracing technology; trialling the consumer acceptability, cost-effectiveness and usability of a novel dehydration testing device in residential aged care’.
This project investigates the potential of using an innovative technology testing device for dehydration and its feasibility for use with older adults in residential aged care. Older adults are at greater risk of becoming dehydrated due to physiological and other ageing related factors. Dehydration is a significant contributor to urinary tract infections (UTIs), delirium, falls, hospitalisation, decreased quality of life and death. The prevalence of dehydration in older adults living in similar settings was almost 38% (average 19%) when using the gold standard testing method, serum osmolality. Australian best practice guidelines to assess for dehydration in older adults rely on clinical and physical assessments which are no longer diagnostically useful.
There is a gap between best practice recommendations and current clinical practice guidelines to test for dehydration in older adults. This reinforces the impetus for aged care providers to identify rapid tests for dehydration so proactive interventions can be initiated and prevent the clinical deterioration associated with dehydration. This project will investigate whether the MX3 hydration test is better than the current recommended assessments to diagnose dehydration in Helping Hand Residential aged care facilities and explore its acceptability and feasibility among residents and staff.