title: Participant characteristics predicting voluntary early withdrawal from a multidisciplinary program providing home-delivered meals and dietitian/social work case management to homebound elders.
abstract: We examine whether baseline characteristics of participants enrolled in a multidisciplinary program providing home-delivered meals and dietitian/social work case management to homebound seniors predicted voluntary early withdrawal. Sixty-nine participants voluntarily withdrew early and 111 completed the project. Six hypotheses were based on a conceptual framework incorporating (1) agreement between project elements and needs/preferences of individuals and (2) whether participants would improve and no longer require or desire the intervention. Three of the hypotheses were supported by means of logistic regression analysis. Voluntary early withdrawers at baseline: (1) were more mobile, (2) ate less often, and (3) responded that food tastes good less often. The results suggest that carefully considering the interaction of potential participant characteristics and project interventions will improve nutrition project retention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: McAuley
authors.forename: Megan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: McCutcheon
authors.forename: Shirley S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Travis
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001066:Appetite; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D018577:Homebound Persons / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013649:Taste