Conduct Protocol for eating approach of bereaved individuals

By Maria Teresa Fialho de Sousa Campos, Maria do Carmo Gouveia Peluzio e Raquel Maria Amaral Araújo, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Departamento de Nutrição e Saúde, campus Viçosa, MG, Brazil

Researchers of the Nutrition Science Post-graduation Program of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) proposed and published in the Brazilian Journal of Nutrition (Vol. 31, No. 3) a dietary investigation protocol under bereavement situation with the title “Eating approach of bereaved individuals: A protocol proposal”. The protocol developed for food research in bereavement was based on the critical review of literature and the experience with food surveys applied to bereaved people, in order to provide an instrument that could assimilate the grief experience (CAMPOS, 2013) and the dietary practices (POULAIN; PROENÇA, 2003). The focus of this protocol is in the approach quality, and in the respect of the emotional condition of bereaved individuals. The chosen route for the construction of this instrument was based on the information obtained in the literature regarding the emotional vulnerability of bereaved individuals, including the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder and state of melancholy and/or anguish due to the death of the beloved one (CAMPOS, 2013), stages of reactions to bereavement (KÜBLER-ROSS, 2017), and the personality pattern that made up the theoretical assumptions to substantiate the choices of method and protocol. In the presented proposal were emphasized the inherent precautions to the methodological procedures that are applied to the food survey under grief influence, proposing a conduct protocol that can serve both research and professional care. The conduct protocol is divided into three moments corresponding to the meetings and the steps of approach are discussed in these care services. This research seeks to problematize this investigation, outlining the phases of coping with bereavement (KÜBLER-ROSS, 2017) that involve higher adherence, from these individuals, to food surveys. The purpose of this protocol is to obtain essential and intrinsic information to the bereavement (characterization of the death, the bereavement, and the dimension of pain), adding them to the eating habit surveys demarcated by the interviews, allowing the professional to evaluate the bereavement influence on food intake. It should be emphasized that although this protocol contains guidelines that guide the process of professional care or research; for both situations, different kinds of adaptations must be planned, depending on the context of the professional care and the purposes of the research. Considering the bereaved individual’s vulnerability, and the demand for appropriate methodology of eating approach to be used in the professional practice, this conduct protocol may provide more appropriate and direct attention to these individuals.

References

CAMPOS, M.T.F.S. A influência do luto no comportamento alimentar e suas implicações nas condutas nutricionais. Ciênc. saúde coletiva [online]. 2013, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 2769-2779, ISSN: 1413-8123 [viewed 23 October 2018]. DOI: 10.1590/S1413-81232013000900032. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/3gtt9q

POULAIN, J.P. and PROENÇA, R.P.C. Reflexões metodológicas para o estudo das práticas alimentares. Rev. Nutr. [online]. 2003, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 365-386, ISSN: 1415-5273 [viewed 23 October 2018]. DOI: 10.1590/S1415-52732003000400001. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/psjhmm

KÜBLER-ROSS, E. Sobre a morte e o morrer. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2017.