Meals on Wheels - Home Living Elderly’s Experiences of Appetite and Influence on the Service

Master's thesis in Health and social sciencesAbstract Objective: To explore the home living elderly’s experience with appetite and perceived ability to influence their Meals on wheels service. Design: Exploratory qualitative study using semi-structured qualitative interviews. Setting: A meals on wheels service in a municipality situated in South-western Norway. Participants: A total of three home living elderly receiving a meals-on-wheels service aged 80-90 years, one male and two females. Results: Systematic text condensation revealed three categories that represents the experience of the home living elderly relating to appetite and influence on their meals-on-wheels service: 1) Aspects of the meals challenging the informant’s appetite 2) Compensating and complementary strategies developed to ensure appetite in relation to their received meals 3) User involvement; the informants perceived ability to exert influence on the meals Conclusion: Findings from this study indicate a need for MOW products that considers the elderly’s sensory capabilities and preferences, as to maintain and increase the elderly’s appetite. In addition, the importance of user involvement as a factor to counteract the feeling of being dependent whilst receiving MOW service has been highlighted in this study, and should be further investigated. Key words: Appetite, Meals-on-Wheels, experiences, Home-living, elderl