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In-Home Nutritional Assessment of Inner-City Elderly^1,2,3,

Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

Aims of this research have been to obtain aggregate data on reported problems in food access that are experienced by homebound, inner-city elderly; to disaggregate the data to show which subgroups of elderly are at highest risk for these types of food insecurity; and to assess whether these elderly differ socioeconomically, medically, or nutritionally from homebound elderly who report that they eat regularly. Instruments were designed to measure population-based food insecurity and to ask respondents to provide information about their socioeconomic status and disabilities as well as the extent to which they have formal or informal assistance in obtaining food. The need to collect this information has been linked to a state-wide effort to target city nutritionally needy elderly for home-delivered meals. Findings have been that food insecurity in the inner-city homebound is linked to loss of mobility as well as to poverty and lack of in-home food assistance. Minority elderly whose questionnaire responses indicate food insecurity include diabetics whose disease control is adversely affected by irregular eating. When methods of home assessment have been used to examine the extent to which a home-delivered meals program meets the nutritional needs of recipients, it has been possible to demonstrate that meals recipients show less food insecurity than a comparison group on waiting lists to receive meals.

KEY WORDS: • food insecurity • elderly • home-delivered meals • homebound • minority

¹ Presented as part of a conference, "Nutrition Monitoring and Nutrition Status Assessment", at the first fall meeting of the American Institute of Nutrition, Charleston, South Carolina, December 8–10, 1989. The conference was supported in part by cooperative agreement HPU880004-02-1 with the DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the USDA Human Nutrition Information Service, the DHHS National Center for Health Statistics, and the International Life Sciences Institute-Nutrition Foundation.

² The Planning Committee for the meeting consisted of Drs. Helen A. Guthrie, Roy J. Martin, Linda D. Meyers, James A. Olson, Catherine E. Woteki, and Richard G. Allison (ex officio). The symposium papers were edited by a committee consisting of Dr. James Allen Olson (coordinator), Dept. of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA; Dr. Cathy C. Campbell, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Dr. Roy J. Martin, Dept. of Foods & Nutrition, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; and Dr. Catherine E. Woteki, Food & Nutrition Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.

³ Funding for this project was provided by the New York State Department of Health, contract number C001038.

Manuscript received 10 December 1989. Revision accepted 11 July 1990.