Abstract
Food insecurity affects over 10 million older adults in the United States. Older adults who experience food insecurity are at greater risk for malnutrition, which can lead to chronic disease and functional decline. Two-thirds of older adults already have two or more chronic disease, placing food-insecure older adults at even greater risk for increased health care costs and hospitalization. To promote successful aging, older adults need resources to help them overcome the barriers they encounter when attempting to access healthy foods. Select government programs have been established to help older adults obtain and consume nutritious meals, but further efforts are needed to validate the effectiveness and importance of these nutrition programs. Examination of government nutrition programs can be enhanced through a social cognitive perspective. This paper will review constructs of the social cognitive theory (SCT) that help explain the dietary habits of food-insecure older adults and will use the SCT to explain how senior nutrition programs can help facilitate healthy eating behaviors.
Highlights
The rate of food insecurity among older adults ages 60 and over is a growing concern in the United States (Ziliak and Gunderson 2016, 2)
Government nutrition programs funded through the Older Americans Act have been established to maximize older adult nutrition and minimize health decline (Administration on Aging 2015)
Older adults with activity of daily living (ADLs) impairments and instrumental activity of daily living (IADLs) have been reported to have had a higher prevalence of food insecurity (Lee and Frongillo 2001, S97), indicating that older adults with functional impairments may be at greater nutritional risk and further functional decline
Summary
The rate of food insecurity among older adults ages 60 and over is a growing concern in the United States (Ziliak and Gunderson 2016, 2). Government nutrition programs funded through the Older Americans Act have been established to maximize older adult nutrition and minimize health decline (Administration on Aging 2015). These nutrition programs have helped millions of older adults improve their nutritional intake, and continued financial and governmental support is necessary to sustain nutrition programming for the growing older adult population. Albert Bandura’s (2004, 144) social cognitive theory (SCT) can be applied to community-based government nutrition programs and can explain how these programs promote healthy eating behaviors among the food-insecure older adult population. Examining community-based nutrition programs, such as congregate dining programs, from the SCT perspective can help justify continued financial and government support for the nutritional needs of our older adult population
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