Meals-on-wheels (MOW) program has been widely adopted in Taiwan since 1997. There has been a few survey investigating the nutritional status and satisfaction with this program. Firstly, we investigated the 23 independent -living elderly people who apply meals-on-wheels in Shih-Lin Area for four months. The assessment for nutritional status was determined using anthropometrics, laboratory data, and two methods－“DETERMINE Checklist” (NSI), and “Mini Nutritional Assessment” (MNA). After four months meals-on-wheels service elderly person improve their nutritional status that weight, BMI and creatinine were significantly decreased in male but not in female. Seventy-two percent subjects judged the meal as “good”. This effect did not influence by subjects demographic data. Secondary, we investigated the demands to 68 independent-living elderly person for meals-on-wheels program. Results showed that 33.85% of the subjects who needed this meals delivery services. These needs of services are correlated with religious belief and perception to their health status. There are 71.4% of the subjects want to receive meals every day, and 50% want two meals per day. Lunch and dinner is the most choice by subjects. The demand of meals delivery services group has a higher prevalence of malnutrition than the no demand / unsure groups based on the NSI.
