Increasing senior citizen participation in a community-based nutritious meal program.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Public Health
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Elderly citizens often underutilize beneficial community services.
• Effective strategies are needed to increase participation in programs like nutritious meal services for seniors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate prompting and reinforcement procedures for enhancing elderly participation in a nutritious meal program.
• To identify cost-effective interventions for increasing community service utilization among seniors.

Main Methods:

• Experiment I used a multiple-baseline design to test radio announcements, home visits, phone calls, and incentives for recruiting new participants.
• Experiment II employed a multi-element design to compare scheduled activities and incentives for maintaining participation among existing low-attending seniors.

Main Results:

• Home visits and incentives were superior recruitment methods; incentives were most cost-effective.
• Scheduled activities showed a moderate increase in attendance, while incentives substantially boosted participation rates.

Conclusions:

• Inexpensive procedures, particularly incentives and home visits, can effectively increase elderly participation in community-based services.
• Targeted interventions can improve access to and utilization of vital senior support programs.