OBJECTIVES This study aims to investigate the married female immigrants' experience on Korean dietary life adaptation, especially identifying the symbolic meaning and nature of experiences. METHODS This study was conducted with six married female immigrants through an analysis of the qualitative materials which consisted of in-depth interviews, field notes and materials. Data was analyzed using Giorgi's phenomenological research methods. RESULTS The results were deduced as 116 significant statements, 17 formulated meanings (sub-theme), and 6 theme clusters. Six theme clusters comprised of lack of preliminary knowledge and information, conflict and support in relationships, Korean food culture which is different from homeland, adaptation attitudes of Korean food culture according to situation, sharing of homeland food culture, and practical difficulty and expectative service. The participants started Korean life in the dark about Korea and Korean food culture, so they were subjected to trial and error. The conflict between Korean mother-in-law and foreign daughter-in-law came from lack of consideration of daughter-in-law's cultural background. Some participants were hurt because of misunderstanding and nitpicking. They were learning about cooking method, ingredient, seasoning, table setting and manner. Some participants integrated Korean food culture and their homeland food culture. Some of them assimilated with Korean food culture. One of them maintained homeland food culture. The participants who adapted Korean food culture well could share homeland food amicably. They sometimes didn't apply the services which were offered by the government, because the services did not fit their needs. Some of them didn't know the usage route of the services or information. They had resistance about home teaching and it showed that outreach service was not always effective. CONCLUSIONS This study suggested that it is necessary to develop a practical support plan which covers married female immigrants' real needs and system improvement measures.
OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to suggest the strategies for improvement of home-delivered meal services for the elderly, to identify reasons for recipients to get started with the services and to evaluate the attitude, acceptability and adaptation of recipients to the services from the perspective of life context. METHODS The data was collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews with eighteen low-income elderly recipients of home-delivered meals and analyzed using a qualitative research method. RESULTS The results were deduced as four themes which comprised of long-term vulnerable socioeconomic contexts resulted in entry to the services, conflicting acceptability to the services, passive adaptation to taking the services, and positive practices to cope with supplement free meals or other services. The service participation was initiated because of a combination of prolonged, vulnerable socioeconomic contexts, including poverty and unexpected life events such as diseases, disability, living alone, aging and unemployment. With regard to taking the services, conflicting acceptability was observed: positive aspects including saving living cost and good quality of meals, and negative aspects including lack of a tailored service and feeling of stigma. Although the recipients needed an individualized service, they did not express their needs and demands for the services and they accepted the unavailability as an accustomed, prolonged vulnerable socioeconomic context. With regard to lack of tailored services, either self-solution such as modification of eating patterns or community-based network and services were used. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that a system to concretely identify recipients' attitude, acceptability and adaptation for home-delivered meal services should be developed in the establishment of a tailored nutrition support system for the low-income elderly.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Food Insecurity and Stress Among Rural Residents in South Carolina: The Moderating Influences of Household Characteristics, Neighborhood Social Environment and Food Environment Caitlin Koob, Ye Luo, Catherine Mobley, Samuel Baxter, Sarah Griffin, Cassius Hossfeld, Leslie Hossfeld Journal of Community Health.2023; 48(3): 367. CrossRef
Virtual Grocery Store: Fostering Healthy Nutrition among Seniors Tara Crowell, Anthony Dissen, Elizabeth G. Calamidas, Elizabeth Finnerty, Laura Engelmann Journal of Nutrition in Gerontology and Geriatrics.2021; 40(4): 290. CrossRef
Interpersonal and Community Factors Related to Food Sufficiency and Variety: Analysis of Data from the 2017 Community Health Survey Jiyoun Hong, Taisun Hyun Korean Journal of Community Nutrition.2020; 25(5): 416. CrossRef
Experiences of Healthcare and Daily Life Support Services in Community-dwelling Elders Living Alone: A Thematic Analysis using Focus Group Interviewing Yeon-Hwan Park, Kyung-Choon Lim, Be Long Cho, Hana Ko, Yu Mi Yi, Eun-Young Noh, So-Im Ryu, Sun Ju Chang Journal of Korean Gerontological Nursing.2019; 21(3): 200. CrossRef
Food Insecurity and Geriatric Hospitalization Rachel S. Bergmans, Briana Mezuk, Kara Zivin International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2019; 16(13): 2294. CrossRef
Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and maternal depressive symptoms: Moderation by program perception Rachel S. Bergmans, Lawrence M. Berger, Mari Palta, Stephanie A. Robert, Deborah B. Ehrenthal, Kristen Malecki Social Science & Medicine.2018; 197: 1. CrossRef