Current status of congregate meal services for elderly people and self-perceived benefits of the participants by using Taipei City as an example

Objectives: To investigate the status of congregate meal services and understand the benefits of participation on congregate meal services and the associated factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. The participants were the providers and users at congregate meal service sites. We collected data by using stratified proportionate cluster sampling and face-to-face interviews using self-developed structured questionnaire as a tool. Hierarchical linear models were used to identify factors associated with participation. Results: We obtained questionnaire responses from 35 provider (response rate, 94.6%) and 613 user questionnaire (response rate, 69.6%); 89% sites provided services less than 3 days per week. The average scores of self-perceived benefits of users on psychological and social dimensions were higher than the physiological dimensions. Those with higher participation frequency had higher self-perceived benefit scores. In addition, users at the sites providing services more than 3 days per week had higher self-perceived benefit scores. Conclusions: The frequency of participation and that of providing congregate meal services per week are associated with participation benefits. We suggest that Taiwan government to encourage and subsidize congregate meal service sites to increase the service frequency to up to 5 days a week and thus improve the self-perceived benefits of the users.