This study reports on the process and outcome evaluation of a community-based nutrition and cooking education program for senior men. As part of Evergreen Action Nutrition, a community-organized, nutrition education program, a registered dietitian led a Men's Cooking Group in a seniors' recreation facility. Written questionnaires were completed by most of the men (n = 19) at the beginning and end of the evaluation year, and ten men participated in personal key informant interviews. The majority of participants gained cooking confidence, increased their cooking activities at home, developed healthy cooking skills, and improved cooking variety through the program. The men also identified social benefits to the program. Overall, this preliminary evaluation suggests that community-based nutrition and cooking education for older men is a beneficial nutrition education activity.
IntroductionWhile patient and citizen engagement has been recognised as a crucial element in healthcare reform, limited attention has been paid to how best to engage seniors—the fastest growing segment of the population and the largest users of the healthcare system. To improve the healthcare services for this population, seniors and their families need to be engaged as active partners in healthcare decision-making, research and planning. This synthesis aims to understand the underlying context and mechanisms needed to achieve meaningful engagement of older adults in healthcare decision-making, research and planning.Methods and analysisThe CHOICE Knowledge Synthesis Project: Choosing Healthcare Options by Involving Canada's Elderly aims to address this issue by synthesising current knowledge on patient, family, and caregiver engagement. A realist synthesis will support us to learn from other patient and citizen engagement initiatives, from previous research, and from seniors, families and caregivers themselves. The synthesis will guide development or adaptation of a framework, leading to the development of best practice guidelines and recommendations for engagement of older people and their families and caregivers in clinical decision-making, healthcare delivery, planning and research.Ethics and disseminationThe components of this protocol involving consultation with patients or caregivers have received ethics clearance from the University of Waterloo, Office of Research Ethics (ORE#19094). After completion of the project, we will amalgamate the information collected into a knowledge synthesis report which will include best practice guidelines and recommendations for patient, family and caregiver engagement in clinical and health system planning and research contexts.ResultsWill be further disseminated to citizens, clinicians, researchers and policymakers with the help of our partners.Trial registration numberCRD42015024749.
Three years of process evaluation data are presented for Evergreen ActionNutrition food workshops conducted at an older adults' recreation center. Over a three-year period, 475 written evaluations of single and three-session series workshops were completed. Additionally, data were collected from four focus groups of older adult participants (n = 19). Older persons report intention to change behavior based on attendance at a single workshop. Series workshop participants report increased knowledge, confidence in cooking, and motivation to make changes. Focus group participants identified the following as key aspects to success and empowerment of behavior change: relevant information, specifically in the form of recipes; interactive format, including taste-testing; social experience; consistent, high-quality education; and small size of the group. Food workshops or demonstrations can be meaningful nutrition education activities for older adults.
Dietitians working with community-living older adults could use food tastings to help translate key educational messages into practice, and to encourage eating enjoyment as people age.
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