Understanding needs is important for assessing the impact of food assistance program participation on nutritional and health status in US elderly persons

This study aimed to assess the impact of food assistance programs on nutrit ional and health status of nutritionally needy elderly persons, Two cross-s ectional and one longitudinal data sets were used: Third National Health an d Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-94), Nutrition Survey of the Elderly i n New York State (1994) and Longitudinal Study of Aging (1984-1990), Multip le logistic and linear regression analyses were used to examine whether foo d assistance participants among food insecure elderly (i.e., those whose ne eds for food assistance programs are met) have better nutrient intake, skin fold thickness and serf-reported health status and less nutritional risk, h ospitalization and mortality than nonparticipants (i.e., those whose needs are unmet) and whether the benefit is larger than that among food secure el derly persons, Across three data sets, food insecure elderly persons had po orer nutritional and health status than food secure elderly persons. Contra ry to the hypotheses, among food insecure elderly persons, food assistance participants had similar or poorer nutrient intakes, skinfold thickness, nu tritional risk, self-reported health status, hospitalization and mortality than nonparticipants. Food secure participants had similar nutritional and health status as food secure nonparticipants. Lack of information on the dy namic nature and changes in needs with program participation in the three d ata sets likely did not allow accurate estimation of the impact of food ass istance participation. Different study designs, as well as theory and knowl edge of needs that clarifies need status and its change within each older i ndividual across an appropriate time interval, are necessary to accurately assess impacts of food assistance programs.