Nutrition Outcomes at Senior Centers

Nutrition and meals are central to care provided by senior centers, with programs focused on improving social engagement as well as diet.  Drawing on data for three years in two time periods (2006-2007 and 2012) from senior centers (SCs) in an urban Texas county, we focus on prediction of several factors:  reported usefulness of nutrition education, self-assessed improvements in nutrition and overall health, and the reduction of fat and calories in diet.  Predictors include social engagement factors.  Respondents rating SC social interactions as important were more likely to report nutrition education to be useful and SC nutrition programs to have improved their nutrition and their health.  Ethnic minority respondents tended to report similarly, as did married respondents and those who had been attending the SCs less than a year.  Those eating at SCs daily were more likely to report both improved nutrition and overall health but less likely to have reduced fat in their diets. Controlling for marital status, those living alone were more likely to report improved nutrition and reduction of fat in diets.  Those told by their physicians to lose weight were more likely to report all four positive outcomes.  Overall, findings highlight the importance of social-engagement factors in improvement of health and nutrition, the role of physician recommendations in improving nutrition via SC programs, and the potential for SC programs to reduce nutritional disparities.