What Drove Program Participants to Initially Attend Congregate Meals? Socialization, Health, and Other Reasons

The Congregate Nutrition Services support efforts to keep older Americans independent and engaged in their communities. We examined participants' self-reported reasons for initially attending the congregate meals program and whether reasons differed by participant characteristics. Descriptive statistics and tests of differences were used to compare participants (n = 1,072). Individuals attended congregate meals for several reasons, with the top two being socialization (36.3%) and age- or health-related reasons (18.7%). Those attending for socialization were less likely to be lower income, have food insecurity, or live with 3+ ADL limitations while participants who first attended due to age or health-related reasons were more likely to be low income, food insecure, and from historically marginalized populations. Health and social service professionals and community organizations could expand data collection on older adults in their communities and partner with congregate meal providers to encourage participation for individuals with unmet nutritional, health, and socialization needs.

Remain Independence and Neighborhood Social Cohesiveness Among Older Adults Participating in Three Community-Based Programs Promoting Aging-in-Community in the USA

Objectives: Aging-in-community has been a preferred way to aging. This study examines and compares remain independence (RI) and neighborhood social cohesiveness (NSC) among three programs promoting aging-in-community (AIC). Methods: Older adults from three AIC programs were surveyed: a village program, a county neighborhood lunch program, and a university-based lifelong learning program. Previously validated RI (3-item) and NSC (4-items) measures were used. Results: Mean age was 72.4 (SD = 8.68) years (n = 289). Both the RI and NSC scales showed satisfactory reliabilities, with Cronbach's alphas of .81 and .88, respectively. Analyses showed significant inter-group differences on both RI and NSC. After controlling for demographics, regressions showed inter-group differences remained for RI, while disappeared for NSC. Education level had an inverse relationship with RI, whereas married status had a positive relationship with NSC scores. Discussion: Findings call attentions to RI among higher education and NSC among single older adults for community-based services and programs promoting aging-in-community.