Factors Associated With the Use of Meals-On- Wheels among Home Care Clients: The Nutormed Study

Abstract

their nutritional status and may help increase older peoples' independence while encouraging autonomy [2]. Using MOW services improves older people's nutritional intake [3, 4]. A previous study among community-dwelling older people showed that use of coupled with individual nutritional counselling can improve nutritional status [5]. The main ideas of MOW are to provide not only a portion of the daily required nutritional intake [4, 7], but also meals that clients can consume fully [8]. Nowadays, the objective is to facilitate living at home as long as possible and to provide home care services. To provide adequate treatment and care according also to the individual needs of these home care clients, health care and nursing care providers need to know more about this group. It is important to identify MOW clients among the vulnerable population so that the service can be improved. We also need understand better how MOW are used. The aims of this study were to describe nutritional status of MOW clients and factors associated with use of. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted as part of the Nutrition, Oral health and Medication (NutOrMed) study [9]. The study sample comprised (n=266) home care clients aged 75 years or over living in three cities in Eastern and Central Finland. Home care clients were interviewed and examined at home by a nutritionist, trained nurses and a pharmacist between February and December 2013. If the participant had a cognitive impairment, the data were supplemented by a caregiver. Nutritional status and meal service usage were evaluated by a nutritionist. She measured weight and height and computed BMI as the ratio of weight to the square of height (kg/m 2). Nutritional screening was performed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) [10]. Meal service assessment included questions about how many times MOW were used per week. The participants who received MOW ≥3 times per week were included in MOW clients.