%0 Journal Article %T Home-Living Elderly People's Views on Food and Meals %A Ellinor Edfors %A Albert Westergren %J Journal of Aging Research %D 2012 %I Hindawi Publishing Corporation %R 10.1155/2012/761291 %X Background. The aim of the study was to describe home-living elderly people's views on the importance of food and meals. Methods. Semistructured interviews with twelve elderly people. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results. Respondents described how their past influenced their present experiences and views on food and meals. Increased reliance on and need of support with food and meals frequently arose in connection with major changes in their life situations. Sudden events meant a breaking point with a transition from independence to dependence and a need for assistance from relatives and/or the community. With the perspective from the past and in the context of dependency, respondents described meals during the day, quality of food, buying, transporting, cooking, and eating food. Conclusions. Meeting the need for optimal nutritional status for older people living at home requires knowledge of individual preferences and habits, from both their earlier and current lives. It is important to pay attention to risk factors that could compromise an individual's ability to independently manage their diet, such as major life events and hospitalisation. Individual needs for self-determination and involvement should be considered in planning and development efforts for elderly people related to food and meals. 1. Introduction Malnutrition, which includes undernutrition as well as overweight/obesity, is a common problem among the elderly. The prevalence of undernutrition among home-living elderly people was found to be 14.5% according to the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) [1]. Among elderly people who had recently moved to a residential home, 33¨C37% were malnourished according to the MNA [2]. The higher prevalence of undernutrition among elderly people admitted to residential homes highlights the importance of identifying elderly people who live at home and are at risk of malnutrition, to prevent the development and aggravation of undernutrition, followed by increased dependency on and need for institutional care [1]. In addition, among 70-year-old Swedes, 20% of the men and 24% of the women were obese ( B M I > 3 0 ) [3]. In Swedish nursing homes the prevalence of overweight was 22% and another 8% were obese [4]. Thus, obesity is also a frequent problem among the elderly. The consequences of undernutrition in elderly people include functional decline or frailty [5¨C7], decreased quality of life [8], increased health care utilisation and costs [9, 10], higher rates of adverse complications from other health conditions [11], and %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jar/2012/761291/