title: Resident complaints about the nursing home food service: relationship to cognitive status.
abstract: Most nursing home (NH) residents are not interviewed about their satisfaction with the food service due to cognitive impairment. The purpose of this study was to determine the proportion of NH residents able to complete a structured interview to assess food complaints when no cognitive status criteria were used to exclude residents from interview. Eighty-nine percent of 163 residents were able and willing to complete the interview, and 65% expressed complaints about the NH food service. Residents who expressed complaints ate less of their meals, had less cognitive impairment, and had more depressive symptoms than those who did not. This study shows that the majority of NH residents are able to reliably answer questions about their satisfaction with the food service, regardless of cognitive status, and the presence of complaints is related to poor meal intake and depressive symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232-2400, USA. sandra.simmons@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Sandra F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cleeton
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Porchak
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D001835:Body Weight; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004326:Drinking; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008612:Menu Planning; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D013223:Statistics as Topic