Objective: To examine the effect of interventions provided to home-delivered meal service recipients living in an inner city neighborhood for the purpose of improving their nutritional conditions.
Design: Intervention study.
Setting and participants: Both the Study Group (42 seniors) and the Control Group (39 seniors), all of whom are over 60 years old, received home delivered meal services. In addition, only the Study Group received the following services through the trained neighborhood residents: 1) health education, 2) referrals to other community resources for unmet health needs, and 3) follow-up services to assure that the health problems were addressed appropriately. The nutritional condition, depression and cognitive status of the Study Group were assessed by medical staff before and after the six-month intervention. The same assessments were conducted to the Control Group with the same interval. Data was analyzed using ANOVA (repeated).
Measurements: MNA, GDS, and MMSE.
Results: Compared to the Control Group, the nutritional condition (p=0.052) and depression (p=0.02) of the Study Group were improved, while no significant difference was observed in their cognitive status.
Conclusion: A combination of interventions by medical professionals and by trained neighborhood residents seemed to be an effective strategy to approach nutritional problems of seniors living in inner city areas.