Food satisfaction of residents, families and staff of aged care homes: A nation-wide survey

Members of the Flinders University Aged Care Food and Nutrition Research Team (‘project team’) were commissioned by the Maggie Beer Foundation to conduct a nationwide survey to determine the food satisfaction of residents, their families and staff in residential aged care homes across Australia, using the Flinders University Food Service Satisfaction Questionnaires(1)(2)(3).

This nationwide survey was promoted to all residential aged care homes in Australia (n=2700), by the Maggie Beer Foundation and the Department of Health in July 2023 and periodically thereafter. Expressions of interest were collated and forwarded to the project team each week from 8th August 2023. The project team supplied registrants with unique electronic links to each questionnaire hosted on Qualtrics, or PDF copies where requested, between 8 August 2023 and 31 December 2023. To support participation in this project, the project team provided sites with a User Manual and access to online training materials designed to support quality administration of the Flinders University Food Service Satisfaction Questionnaires. Upon confirmation from participating sites of a date suitable to close the questionnaire links and proceed to analysis, or confirmation that the site was unable to commit to participation by the 31 December 2023 deadline, the links were closed. The project team then commenced data analysis and preparation of site-specific reports, which were sent to participating aged
care homes and the Maggie Beer Foundation. The timeline of activity associated with the project can be seen in Figure 1.