A Study for Food Service Utilization and Service Satisfaction of the Elderly Participants

사회복지관 무료급식서비스 이용 노인의 특성 및 만족도에 관한 연구 : 충청북도를 중심으로

The purposes of this research were 1) to investigate the characteristics of the meal service participants; 2) to evaluate the food service utilization of the elderly; 3) to identify major factors that affect food service satisfaction of the participants in Chungchongbuk-Do. For doing this, 309 subjects were selected and the survey research method was adopted. The characteristics of the meal service participants were similar to the characteristics of general elderly population in Korea. The public assistant recipients were under representative in this sample, that is, most of elderly people who participated in meal service consisted of non public assistant recipients. It meant that meal service was not provided to low-income elderly people. The health status of the elderly people was stable to be able to attend to the meal service organizations. The most important reason to use a meal service was to see their friends. It showed that meal services played an important role to provide support systems to the elderly people in community. Thus, meal services should be provided to the elderly people with social services. In order to analyze the factors influencing food service satisfaction, multiple regression analysis was employed. The results showed that physical activity, contact with friends who met in meal service program, and the number of social services were the important variables to predict meal service satisfaction in this study. These findings contributed to a better understanding of developing a meal service planning. Several improvement strategies were recommended to provide effective meal services. First, socio-economical characteristics of the elderly should be considered to provide appropriate services. Second, meal services should be provided to the elderly people with social services. Third, home delivery meal services should be available to the home-bound elderly.