Author(s): Chiung- Hui Tseng, Hsiao-Chi Ling

Abstract: Population aging has become an important public health and social welfare issue worldwide, increasing the demand for nutritionally adequate and health-oriented meal services for older adults. Group meal services provided in long-term care institutions, senior centers, community meal programs, and day-care centers play a critical role in supporting older adults’ daily dietary intake, health maintenance, and quality of life. However, older adults often experience physiological changes such as reduced appetite, chewing and swallowing difficulties, changes in taste and smell, chronic diseases, and reduced physical function, which may increase the risk of malnutrition and dietary imbalance. Therefore, this study examines nutritional adequacy and healthy dietary needs in group meal services for older adults. This study adopts a quantitative research design and uses a structured questionnaire to collect data from older adults receiving group meal services. The questionnaire focuses on demographic characteristics, perceived nutritional adequacy, healthy dietary needs, meal satisfaction, and service quality. A total of 50 questionnaires were distributed, 45 were returned, and 37 were valid, resulting in an effective response rate of 82.2%. The results show that most respondents were female, aged 51–60, married, and had a senior high school education. In addition, 89.2% of respondents expressed interest in nutrition-related knowledge, indicating that older adults are highly concerned about healthy eating. The findings reveal that respondents generally had positive perceptions of the group meals. Satisfaction scores for all meal-quality items were above 4.3. The highest satisfaction item was attractiveness of dishes, followed by freshness of ingredients, low-oil, low-salt, low-fat, and high-fiber preparation, appropriate portion size, and cleanliness and hygiene. In terms of healthy dietary needs, respondents placed the greatest importance on high ingredient freshness, deliciousness, hygiene and safety, and product quality. Correlation analysis further showed that satisfaction had the strongest relationship with consumption behavior, suggesting that improving meal satisfaction may increase older adults’ willingness to continue using group meal services. Overall, the study concludes that group meal services should not only provide sufficient food quantity but also ensure nutritional balance, food safety, freshness, appropriate texture, taste, and disease-related dietary suitability. Practical recommendations include involving nutritionists in menu planning, adjusting meal texture, reducing excessive salt, oil, and sugar, collecting regular feedback from older adults, and strengthening government support for elderly nutrition guidelines and community-based meal programs.

Keywords: Nutritional adequacy; Healthy dietary needs; Group meal services; Older adults; Meal satisfaction; Healthy aging

Article Info: Received: 16 May 2026; Received in revised form: 11 Jun 2026; Accepted: 17 Jun 2026; Available online: 20 Jun 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.113.72