ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1513609
This article is part of the Research TopicUnraveling the Associations Between Diet and Mental HealthView all 9 articles
Effects of Private Caregivers on Nutritional Risk and Anxiety in Stroke Survivors with Dysphagia: An Observational Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- 2First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
- 3Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Private caregivers are common in developing countries as supplements to healthcare human resources. However, the effects of private caregivers on inpatient conditions remain unclear. This study explored the effect of private caregivers on nutritional risk and anxiety in patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke. Methods: This observational study included patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke between 2022 and 2024 in Central China. Participants were divided into non-caregiver and private caregiver groups. A single-factor analysis was used to explore the differences between the baseline assessments of the two groups. We then used Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to balance significant baseline variables, including anxiety at admission, and demographic and clinical characteristics. In the matched sample, we used the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) to uncover the influence of the patient groups on nutritional risks and anxiety on day 10. Results: A total of 2234 patients were included, and there were 766 cases in the private caregiver group. Before PSM, there were significant reductions in anxiety (47.00% vs. 32.86%, P<0.001) and nutritional risks (100.00% vs. 70.55%, P<0.001) from days 1 to day 10. After PSM, there were no significant differences in any baseline assessments, and 766 pairs of cases were successfully captured. The ATT analysis showed that before and after PSM, there was no significant correlation between groups and nutritional risks (30.75% vs. 29.41%, P=0.573), but there was a significant correlation between groups and anxiety on day 10 (34.89% vs. 23.40%, ATT=0.234 after matching, P<0.001). Conclusions: Private caregivers can effectively reduce anxiety in hospitalized patients with dysphagia following ischemic stroke, but they do not have a significant impact on nutritional risks.
Keywords: Accompanying persons, Accompany nursing staff, Professional escorts, Patient escorts, Rehabilitation
Received: 25 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zeng, Li and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sheju Chen, Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.