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Eating strategies – a qualitative study of how frail, home-dwelling older people in Denmark develop strategies to form meaningful eating situations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2017

TENNA JENSEN ,
LIV GRØNNOW  and
ASTRID PERNILLE JESPERSEN
TENNA JENSEN*
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
LIV GRØNNOW
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
ASTRID PERNILLE JESPERSEN
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
*
Address for correspondence: Tenna Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Saxo Institute, Karen Blixens Plads 8, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark E-mail: tennaje@hum.ku.dk
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Abstract

This article analyses the strategies that frail, home-dwelling older people who receive food from public institutions develop and use during eating situations, to gain an insight into how older people mobilise resources in relation to eating. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation sessions with 25 home-dwelling frail older men and women, aged 72–101, who live in Copenhagen and receive food from the municipality. Like healthier older people, frail older Danes develop and use strategies to create acceptable eating situations. The strategies are linked to the arrangement of the eating situation, their former lives and experience with food and eating, and their perception of their own body. The focus on strategies enables insights into how frail older people manage to mobilise resources to create meaningful eating situations. However, even though they mobilise resources to create and maintain eating strategies, these are not all equally appropriate with regards to supporting a healthy nutritional status. The eating strategies used by frail older people and the resources they entail are key to their experience with eating. Focusing on these strategies is useful when developing public care initiatives as this will precipitate an awareness of the resources of this group and how these are activated and contribute to or detract from a healthy nutritional status and a high quality of life.

Keywords

home-dwelling frail older peopleeating strategiesappetitemalnutritionpublic food services
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , March 2019 , pp. 590 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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