Abstract
Dissatisfaction with food and food service is a serious issue among elderly people that leads to lower QOL as well as malnutrition. However, there are only a limited number of surveys on the elderly hospitalized in facilities compared to hospitalized and at-home elderly people. The purpose of the present study was to examine the satisfaction with food and food service in institutionalized elderly people. We investigated how communications between staff and institutionalized elderly people affect this satisfaction. We interviewed 68 elderly people (83.1±7.2 years old) via questionnaire. Satisfaction was measured in seven categories: overall evaluation”, taste”, quantity”, tableware”, meal plans”, meal times”,and snacks”. Satisfaction was lower for taste” and meal plans” than for the other five categories. Significant correlations were found between satisfaction with food and food service” and meal requests are met” (P‹0.05) and The staff seemed friendly and considerable” (P‹0.05) . Those who had conversations with the facility staff concerning the meals felt that the meal requests were met (P‹0.001) . In order to increase the satisfaction with food and food service, this survey suggests that more communication is needed , such as hearing meal requests, between institutionalized elderly people and staff.
