Service Awareness Among Older Adults Experiencing Barriers to Food and Eating.

OBJECTIVE

To explore (1) the services older adults use to address the barriers to food access they face and (2) how they found out about these services.

DESIGN

Semistructured, basic descriptive qualitative in-person interviews.

SETTING

Senior center and participants' homes.

PARTICIPANTS

A convenience sample of 24 older adults recruited from suburban and urban settings. Primarily Black females, living alone, and able to leave home without help.

PHENOMENON OF INTEREST: Financial and nonfinancial barriers to food access, awareness of services available.

ANALYSIS: Codes were assigned to portions of the text in which participants described how they learned about a service. These codes were categorized into one of the 3 larger themes that emerged: (1) intentionally sought by the participant, (2) intentional outreach by the service, and (3) encounters in daily life and environment.

RESULTS

Most connections to services were made through encounters in participants' daily life and environment; for example, word of mouth from family, friends or neighbors; connection through other services; referral from health care professionals; and seeing the service in their neighborhood.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Robust social networks, medical screening, and referral may promote awareness of food assistance services. Future research and outreach should target those who are most isolated.