Analysis of the Reconnaissance Project. Phase 1: The Community

The Reconnaissance project, Nutritional and Food Security Situation of Rural and Urban Elderly from Selected East Asian and Latin American Developing Countries, was carried out in eight developing countries. The purpose of the project was to validate the protocol and identify potential problems before the full project was begun. In March 1993 a workshop was held in Wageningen, Netherlands, for participants from the countries and other interested professionals to analyse the results of the Reconnaissance in preparation for the initiation of the full study. The Reconnaissance consisted of two phases: the first studied the community and the second the individual. This paper summarizes the study of the communities through group discussions and semi-structured interviews of community representatives. The information obtained was used to revise and improve the protocol to be used when the full study, Cross-Cultural Research on the Nutrition of Older Subjects (CRONOS), is undertaken.