Elderly care is becoming increasingly complex due to growing social and cultural diversity. In 2022, around 23.8 million people in Germany – 28.7% of the total population – had a migration background. Many of them bring diverse biographical, social, and health-related conditions that directly influence their care needs.

Studies show that people with a migration background in nursing homes are more often affected by malnutrition than native residents. Since dietary habits are deeply shaped by culture, care concepts must systematically consider these backgrounds. At the same time, the nursing care process is heavily burdened by time constraints and extensive documentation duties, which often hinder the accurate identification of individual needs.

NUTRI-SENSE addresses this challenge by researching and developing digital technologies that relieve nursing care professionals and support personalized, culturally sensitive care – with the goal of sustainably improving the quality of life of older adults in long-term care.

Care for older people requires individualized approaches to nutrition and fluid intake in order to maintain health and reduce care needs. A particular challenge lies in addressing cultural diversity and social inequalities, which are still insufficiently considered in existing nursing care guidelines.

The NUTRI-SENSE project aims to explore and further develop digital technologies that support a culturally sensitive and diversity-aware nursing care process in a user-centered way. The focus lies on how digital tools can improve individual nutritional and fluid intake in nursing care facilities – while taking into account the cultural needs of the residents.

Digital technologies offer great potential to enhance nutritional and fluid intake management in nursing care. The NUTRI-SENSE project focuses in particular on the following approaches:

 

• Artificial intelligence (AI) for automated detection and analysis of eating behavior
• Optical image processing systems for determining food intake quantities
• Mobile applications for user-friendly documentation of eating habits and preferences
• Voice-assisted interfaces for capturing culturally influenced needs – even in the presence of language barriers

 

These technologies aim to ease the workload of nursing staff, simplify care documentation, and better integrate cultural and social aspects of nutrition. The goal is to create digital support systems that meaningfully complement the individual nursing care process and strengthen the quality of nursing care in a diverse society.