Objectives This study was performed to investigate the relationship between foodservice staffing and foodservice quality in elderly care facilities.
Methods Data was obtained from the Korean Long-term Care Institute Database and used to analyze 2,084 elderly care facilities operating on-site foodservice. The presence of dietitians and staffing levels for cooking personnel were analyzed by categorizing size according to staffing criteria. Foodservice quality was assessed using food sanitation management and meal service provision as indicators. Descriptive statistical analysis, chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test were conducted to analyze relationships between staffing level and foodservice quality.
Results Presence of a dietitian correlated with food sanitation management and meal service provision in groups with 30 or more recipients (P = 0.027, P = 0.049). Elderly care facilities with dietitians had better foodservice quality. After adjusting for size, the presence of dietitians was also found to correlate with food sanitation management (P = 0.024). Staffing levels for cooking personnel were found to correlate with meal service provision only in groups with 38 to 62 recipients. Institutions with larger staffs provided better meal service quality compared to those with basic staffing.
Conclusion Inclusion of a dietitian and cooking staff size each contribute to enhanced foodservice quality in elderly care facilities, with dietitian inclusion showing a particularly significant association with food sanitation management. These findings suggest the need to revise current staffing and related regulatory standards to optimize deployment of foodservice personnel in elderly care settings. Future studies should focus on developing effective policies for securing qualified foodservice staff and establishing robust quality management systems to enhance overall foodservice quality in long-term care facilities.
We tried to find out parents' satisfaction and needs for foodservice quality of the childcare centers with an intention of improving it. Self-completed questionnaires were randomly collected from the parents of children in 174 childcare centers around Asan and were analyzed. Most of respondents were mothers who were housewives with college degrees (69%) in their 30's (80%). They thought nutrition (50%) and food hygiene (43%) were the most important factors for decision. Eighty percent of parents recognized the strong relationship between foodservice quality and childrens' mental and physical development. Most centers (94%) were delivering menu notices home, so parents well recognized the center's foodservice situation and problems of their kids' eating habits. The parents' satisfaction scores were 3.26 out of 5-point scale. The biggest dissatisfaction was from no variation in menu, but remarkable appreciation was from the effect of foodservice on the correction for kids' unbalanced diet habit. They had demands for improvement of nutritious menu and professional nutrition teacher in charge of foodservice and nutrition education for children and also for parents.
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The purpose of this study was to identify the differences of older adults' perceptions of foodservice quality attributes of current offerings in Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) in terms of their lifestyles (length of residency, special diet, housing option, travel frequency, dine out frequency), dining frequency, and demographics in the dining room of CCRCs. The survey was administered to residents in three CCRCs. Data was analyzed for 140 surveys using t-test, ANOVA, and factor analysis. This study found female older adults perceived the following attributes were more important than male ones: presentation of food, color and garnish, texture of vegetables, taste and flavor of food, and respectful attitude of serving staff. Older adults who have a special diet perceived the seasoning and bite sized pieces were more important than those who have a general diet. Also, there were significant differences between frequent visitors and occasional visitors in the dining room of CCRCs. By knowing the differences by residents' demographics and residential characteristics, the foodservice manager can establish strategies to increase the dining frequency of residents in the dining rooms of CCRCs.