The elderly population in Korea is growing rapidly and their needs for long-term care is also increased. By the time of 2018, our society is getting into the aged society and in 2026 it will be the super-aged society. Therefore, the institutional care...
The elderly population in Korea is growing rapidly and their needs for long-term care is also increased. By the time of 2018, our society is getting into the aged society and in 2026 it will be the super-aged society. Therefore, the institutional care is necessitated to accomplish the health and well-living care for elderly. Good quality of foodservice not only provided satisfactions but also food health for elderly patients in the long-term care facility, which would lead to long lasting management.
The purpose of this study as to assess the important factors and satisfactory attributes for foodservice management for hospitalized elderly patients, and to establish the relative importance of foodservice encounters in terms of determining the utility values of hospital foodservice by conjoint analysis. This research consisted with three classified parts as followed:
1. Importance-Satisfactory attributes analysis for hospitalized elderly patients at the long-term care facilities.
- Data were collected from one to one interview questionnaires of 194 hospitalized elderly in six different hospitals. Prior to conducting a survey, a screening test was performed whether the patients were capable to answer the questions. Patients were asked to evaluated important and satisfactory attributes in the facilities. As a results of analysis the overall mean score of important attributes(3.96) and satisfactory attributes(3.84) showed a significant difference with dependent t-test(p<0.05). The recognized important attributes showed higher than 4 scores for elderly patients were kindness of foodservice personnel(4.19), smiling foodservice personnel(4.16), foodservice personnel try to talk(4.12). The most satisfactory attributes was kindness of foodservice personnel (4.36) represented statistical significance(p<0.05). The most recognizable satisfactory attributes were related with foodservice personnel which were meal is delivery to bed side by foodservice personnel(4.25), foodservice personnel try to talk(4.24), smiling foodservice personnel(4.24), foodservice personnel have sanitary manner(4.21). The choice of meal(2.93) and dietary counseling with dietetics(2.68) showed worst satisfactory attributes.
2. To develop the most preferable model for hospital foodservice for elderly patients.
- The pearson's R(0.420) and Kendall's tau(0.402) statistics showed that the model fits the data well(p<0.05). It was found that the relative importance of the hospital foodservice encounters were dietary counseling with dietetics(51.2%), foodservice personnel(48.7%), food (0.1%). The Soft cooking method(0.001) was preferred to general cooking method(-o.001) and kind foodservice personnel(0.086) was also preferred to quick service(-0.086). Finally, the counselling with dietetics once a week(-0.138) was preferred to twice a week(-0.276). As a result of conjoint analysis, the most preferable model for hospital foodservice at the long-term care facility would be with soft cooking foods, quick service and counselling with dietetics once a week.
3. The FGI study was conducted with a total of 9 elderly to evaluated adopted results of conjoint analysis to one of long-term care facility located in Seoul area. Results showed that most of respondents were aware of adopted foodservice encounters particularly the service provided with kind foodservice personnels. They had agreed with necessity of counselling with dietetics which was concurrent with previous result of relative importance. However, during the in-depth interview time the most frequently mentioned attributes were food itself - food preference, cooking ways- by the respondents.
A better understanding of the specific needs for the institutionalized elderly seemed one of the key elements that can help the long-term care system to develop improved foodservice programs. This study indicated that the elderly patients at the hospital concerned with foodservice encou