Nutrition Assessment Education Project
Spokane
County
Assessing the Nutritional Health of Seniors
Lessons and Implications
Lessons Learned
Doing the nutrition screening in a community setting required considerable time and attention to detail. During the first six months of 1997 1,135 nutrition screens were completed. The actual time to complete these screens was 690 hours. Staff time to complete the screens was variable. Trained professionals completed the screens more rapidly than students and volunteers. In this assessment, staff reviewed all the data completed by students and volunteers. The need to contact a participant to clarify a response added about 25 to 50% to the time required for completion of each screening.Nutrition screening results can vary if protocols are not standardized. National data is strikingly different from the Spokane Data, and Senior Nutrition staff believe that that is at least partially due to the way the screening was administered. The staff emphasizes the importance of planning and training those who will be doing the screening. A test for inter-rater reliability may help to ensure valid data.
Program and Policy Implications
Results of the nutrition screening were shared with the Area Agency on Aging, the Spokane Regional Health District Assessment Center, and non-profit groups working with seniors in Spokane. It is hoped that the need demonstrated by these data will provide collaborative agencies with support as they seek additional funding. This has already been the case for non-profit Meals on Wheels agencies.This approach to community nutrition assessment has proven to be valuable and effective. The nutrition screening assessment has been expanded, and data from Whitman and NE Tricounty Senior Nutrition programs will soon be available. This will allow additional comparisons between rural and urban participants. Public health nutrition professionals in Spokane are planning to use the population based nutrition screening approach with children to compare the nutritional risk of children who do not participate in WIC with children who are WIC participants.
The data has enabled the lead agency to qualify for the national pilot, Morning Meals on Wheels. This six month study from August 1997 through January 1998 included twenty Senior Nutrition Programs from across the country and generated additional data that is being sent to Florida International University under an agreement with the Administration on Aging. An evaluation of this pilot program demonstrated that it was effective in meeting previously unmet needs in the senior population.
The results from the Senior Nutrition Assessment have been included
in the overall local community health assessment process in Spokane County;
see http://www.spokanecounty.org/health/ca/.
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