A study on the model of homebound senior's meal satisfaction related to the quality of life

This study was conducted to develop a construct model regarding the daily activities, emotional security provided by food, enjoyment of food, level of satisfaction with delivered food, and the quality of life of homebound seniors who benefitted from meal delivery programs. The data were analyzed by SAS 9.2 and the Structural Equation Model (SEM), which was created by Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 5.0 packages. The reliability of the data was confirmed by an exploratory factor analysis and through a Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and the measurement model proved to be appropriate by a confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model in conjunction with AMOS. The results of the correlations between all the variables showed significant positive correlations (P less than 0.05). The path analysis demonstrated that the daily activities (P less than 0.01) and the emotional security created by food (P less than 0.05) had positive correlations with the foodservice satisfaction (P less than 0.05), while the daily activities (P less than 0.05), the sense of emotional security made by food (P less than 0.05), and food enjoyment (P less than 0.05) also presented significant positive correlations with the quality of life. However, the food service satisfaction was shown to directly, but not significantly, affect the quality of life. This revealed that the current meal delivery programs needed to be improved in several directions.