The purpose of this study was to determine perspectives related to nutrition education needs and interests of elderly people who currently participate in a congregate meal program in East Central Indiana in order to improve the current nutrition education materials that are being presented to those who dine at LifeStream Inc., senior cafes. Subjects in this study included sixty participants from 11 LifeStream Services Inc. congregate meal sites across East Central Indiana. Focus groups were conducted by the primary researcher at each site to determine nutrition needs and interests of elderly Americans participating in a congregate meal program concerning nutrition education and other health related topics. The elderly at LifeStream sites were most interested in having more information about specific disease states, most specifically diabetes. Currently nutrition information is received by many different venues with handouts being the most popular and accepted with this population. Ideas that were suggested to improve LifeStream nutrition education included more one-on-one interaction to teach new nutrition information. Keeping lessons simple and interactive is also important when teaching elderly Americans about nutrition topics. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

A molecular nitrogen laser was constructed and preliminary tests were performed to establish the fact that lasing action was taking place. The purpose was to show that a high energy pump source of ultraviolet radiation could be constucted, given a limited budget and expertise, which would be of the quality required to perform spectrographic research.

Researcher Frederick Woodress has added another study, one on media as it has impacted the elderly, to the large 65-year-old data bank for Muncie Indiana's "Middletown." The basic data was established in 1924 when Robert and Helen Lynd, pioneer sociologists, arrived in the Midwestern town to research and write their Middletown books. This new study covers 553 males and females ages 19 to 92--400 over 60 selected at random by computer, 75 in the 30 to 50 group, also selected at random by computer, and 78 journalism students. The elderly and 30 to 50 year-olds were interviewed by telephone while the students completed questionnaires face-to-face.As part of this investigation, Woodress surveyed prominent newspaper columnists, TV news people and editors about their perceptions of the media's coverage of the elderly. With 53 percent return, the author summarized the results of this mail survey.The 14 mediums examined included television, radio, newspapers, tabloids, magazines, books, comics, computers, VCR's and motion pictures. Complaints and compliments were expressed about various media with television rating as the medium the respondents of all ages would miss the most with newspapers a distant second. Elderly respondents displayed a strong interest in television, newspapers, magazines and books, spent considerable time listening to police/fire radio scanners and showed some interest in using computers. The elderly were very critical of the movie industry and two-thirds said they had not attended a movie for at least a year. Almost one-third of the 30-50 age group also admitted they had not attended a movie theater showing for a year, but all groups were watching movies on television, cable and VCR's.All three groups commented on the media coverage of the 1988 presidential election campaign and told what activities they would rather be doing than reading newspapers, listening to radio or watching television. This study is an overview of the growing elderly population, a group given scant attention in previous Middletown studies. It provides important insights for the media concerning this growing segment of the population.

This thesis has explored the relationship between affiliation with voluntary associations and the independent variables of income, education, sex, health, living alone, and age of a sampling frame of 65 and older citizens of Delaware County, Indiana. Additional information received through use of a survey questionnaire included data, the perceived reason for un-involvement as well as categories of desired involvement. Associations considered in this thesis were placed in seven categories fraternal/service, church related, recreational, job related, civic/political, adult leadership, and other. Each variable was then considered in relation to each of these categories. This research supports the hypothesis that older citizens in Delaware County are involved in voluntary associations.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect an intervention, based on responses from a Life Strengths Interview questionnaire (LSI), has on the quality of life of elderly persons receiving private pay home care. A total of 12 subjects for this study were recruited from Cardinal Health Systems (CHS) Home Care service. This research employed a basic pretest posttest quasiexperimental design, with one experimental group and one control group. Subject selection was not randomized; however, subjects were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Subjects in the experimental group completed the LSI pre-test and subjects in both groups completed the Quality of Life Index (QLI) pre-test and post-test, as well as a posttest care questionnaire. Data from eight subjects were coded and entered into a database; however, due to the small sample size, statistical analysis of responses from the QLI could not be performed. The primary thematic issues identified through qualitative data analysis indicate that home health aide services positively contribute to client quality of life, and that private-pay clients of CHS Homecare are currently satisfied with their quality of care. Qualitative results gathered by this study support future research efforts to explore the relationship between home care services and client quality of life. More specifically, this study can serve as a pilot for researchers interested in exploring the effects of a LSI intervention on clients receiving home care. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology