Diet quality in U.S. adults eating in senior and community centers: NHANES 2009-2018

BACKGROUND: With advancing age, the worsening of cognitive and physical disabilities may lead older adults to seek help in their daily living activities. Community/senior centers support older adults during aging, offering a wide variety of services, including meal programs. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2009-2018), we aimed to examine whether community/senior center meal programs were associated with an improved nutritional exposure in U.S. adults aged 60 years or older. METHODS: Nutrient exposure and nutrient-based dietary indexes, including the Diet Quality Score (DQS) and the Food Nutrient Index (FNI) were compared between those eating meals at community/senior centers and the general population. Nutrient intakes were contrasted to the daily nutritional goals from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. RESULTS: This study included 6261 participants aged ≥60 years, thereof n = 421 reporting community/senior center meals. The latter were predominantly female and almost 45% were widowed or divorced. Eating at community/senior centers did not result in a better diet quality in crude analyses. After adjustment for potential sociodemographic confounders as well as alcohol, smoking and energy intake, however, sex-specific differences emerged, revealing significantly higher FNI scores in males eating at community/senior centers (adjusted FNI predictions: 61.71 [CI:58.55-64.88] vs 57.64 [CI:56.86-58.41] points). CONCLUSIONS: Eating at community/senior centers was associated with an improved nutrient exposure in older men, whereas no better diet quality was found in women. Community/senior centers may play a pivotal role when it comes to the diet quality of a particularly vulnerable group of the population.