Su, Zizhou
(2022)
Measuring the accessibility of the home-delivered food program.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
This is the latest version of this item.
Abstract
Being able to live independently and maintain a healthy nutritional lifestyle as an older adult is challenging in the United States (US). Prior studies have found that mental health, especially cognitive status, is associated with nutritional status in older adults.
The daily recommendation for older adults in the US includes at least five servings of fruit and vegetable consumption per day. In 2018, the USDA reports in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that 90% of the population in the US does not meet their daily dietary recommendation. Many community organizations have launched home-delivered meal programs to supply additional food to support older adults to live healthier and independently. However, community organizations lack an instrument that can be utilized by field researchers and community organizations to evaluate how well they are serving their clients in the home-delivered meal program.
This study has two objectives. The first objective is to design a survey that can help community organizations quickly explore how clients in the program handle and use the food. The survey will examine the accessibility of a home-food delivered program offered by Fishes and Loaves Cooperative Ministries at Hazelwood, PA. Accessibility is defined as a) receiving food that can satisfy the nutritional needs of older adults who are enrolled in the program, and b) older adults in the program being able to handle and use safely the food they receive. The second objective of the study is to explore how cognitive factors are associated with older adults’ food handling and food intake process. The results of the study showed that better memory performance was related to greater fruit and vegetable consumption. But further study is needed to determine causality between cognitive and fruit and vegetable consumption. More efforts should also be focused on modifying the survey to not only make the survey easier to understand by the older adults but also explore whether additional behavior and cognitive factors also influence one’s dietary intake.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
1 July 2022 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
17 June 2022 |
| Approval Date: |
1 July 2022 |
| Submission Date: |
23 June 2022 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
44 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Public Health > Behavioral and Community Health Sciences |
| Degree: |
MPH - Master of Public Health |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Nutrition; Community Assessment |
| Date Deposited: |
01 Jul 2022 19:32 |
| Last Modified: |
01 Jul 2022 19:32 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/43222 |
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Measuring the accessibility of the home-delivered food program. (deposited 01 Jul 2022 19:32)
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