A process and mechanism of action evaluation of the effect of early and intensive nutrition care delivered via telephone or mobile application on quality of life in people with upper gastrointestinal cancer: a study protocol

摘要

BackgroundCancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract commonly result in malnutrition, which increases morbidity and mortality. Current nutrition best practice lacks a mechanism to provide early and intensive nutrition support to these patients. A 3-arm parallel randomised controlled trial is testing the provision of a tailored, nutritional counselling intervention delivered using a synchronous, telephone-based approach or an asynchronous, mobile application-based approach to address this problem. This protocol outlines the design and methods that will be used to undertake an evaluation of the implementation process, which is imperative for successful replication and dissemination.