"Satisfaction of residents, their families and food service staff is critical if we are serious about making a difference to food and nutrition in aged care."
— Professor Michelle Miller
In Australia, well over 200,000 older adults live in over 2,500 residential aged care homes where they are almost entirely dependent on the organisational food service to meet their food and nutrition needs.
Factors associated with ageing, such as loss of taste and smell, can decrease food consumption and ultimately lead to malnutrition which is associated with poor health outcomes and decline in quality of life. Risk of malnutrition is compounded by poor satisfaction, with those who are dissatisfied with the food service up to 20 times more likely to be malnourished.
In their 2021 final report, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made 148 recommendations for urgent action with food and nutrition in residential aged care being one of the top four priorities.
The Flinders University Aged Care Food and Nutrition Research team have developed a world first toolkit of validated Food Service Satisfaction Questionnaires for use by key stakeholders in residential aged care; the residents, their families and the food service staff. The team has also developed a suite of evidence-based strategies that can be implemented to facilitate improvements in food and nutrition in residential aged care.
Goal
To develop a toolkit of evidence-based, valid and reliable questionnaires to measure the food service satisfaction of stakeholders in residential aged care.
Aims
Further reading
Pankhurst M, Yaxley A, Miller M. Measuring Food Service Satisfaction amongst Residents Living in Nursing Homes – A New and Valid Person-Centered Approach. Nutrients 2023;15(3):508. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15030508
Miller M, Hamilton J, Scupham R, Matwiejczyk L, Prichard I, Farrer O, Yaxley A. Development and psychometric testing of a novel food service satisfaction questionnaire for food service staff of aged care homes. Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging 2018;22(2):205-215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-017-0885-4
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