Food regulations exist to protect older people in residential aged care, leading to the restriction of potentially hazardous foods. The impacts of malnutrition, resident centred care and the importance of maintaining individual autonomy for older people are well documented. By contrast, there is scant literature describing residents' perceptions of food regulations and food risks in the residential aged care setting.
The aim of this study is to explore resident perceptions of food choice and food restrictions in residential aged care.
Using a qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants recruited from two residential aged care facilities. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.
The following key themes emerged in this study: participants were largely unaware of food regulations and risks, yet expressed the desire to make their own choices. Participants provided contradictory accounts of their experiences with food in residential aged care, which emphasises the ongoing challenge of meeting individual preferences.
These themes warrant further investigation, particularly in relation to the impact of food regulations on food choice and the meaning of risk to older people in residential aged care. This research provides new insight into the perceptions of residents regarding their individual autonomy and independence against legislated risk minimization strategies.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 15. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 March 2023.
All research outputs
#2,163,922
of 23,524,722 outputs
Outputs from Contemporary Nurse
#31
of 518 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#42,911
of 318,975 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Contemporary Nurse
#1
of 13 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,524,722 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 518 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 318,975 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 13 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
