MINIMAL-EATING OBSERVATION FORM-VERSION II (MEOF-II)

The Minimal-Eating Observation Form-Version II (MEOF-II) is an outcome measure developed to provide the clinician with a description of subject mealtime problems and to assess the need for possible interventions (Westergren, Norberg, Vallen, & Hagell, 2011). The assessment is an interactive observation tool composed of three domains: ingestion, deglutition, and energy and appetite, and has six subscales relating to (1) the presence of unintentional weight loss; (2) body mass index (BMI) or calf circumference (CC); (3) eating problems; (4) swallowing and mouth problems; (5) energy and appetite; and (6) the indication of clinical signs. Designed as a modification to the original MEOF by Axelsson (1996), changes included the replacement of opening/closing the mouth and aberrant eating time with chewing ability and appetite (Westergren, Lindholm, Mattsson, & Ulander, 2009). During assessment the clinician notes the presence or absence of particular adverse mealtime behaviors as well as the measurement of a person’s BMI or CC if BMI is unattainable. Items on the MEOF-II may include several observations that are scored as either 0 or 2 or 0 or 1. The measure can be completed in less than 10 minutes where a higher score is suggestive of more risk.