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Older women's reduced contact with food in the Changes Around Food Experience (CAFE) study: choices, adaptations and dynamism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

KATHLEEN LANE ,
FIONA POLAND ,
SHEILA FLEMING ,
NIGEL LAMBERT ,
HILARY MACDONALD ,
JOHN POTTER ,
MONIQUE RAATS ,
PAULA SKIDMORE ,
CAROL VINCE  and
AMANDER WELLINGS
...Show all authors
KATHLEEN LANE*
Affiliation:
School of Allied Health Professions, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
FIONA POLAND
Affiliation:
School of Allied Health Professions, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
SHEILA FLEMING
Affiliation:
Public and Patient Involvement in Research (PPIRes), Research & Development Lakeside 400, Norwich, UK.
NIGEL LAMBERT
Affiliation:
School of Allied Health Professions, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
HILARY MACDONALD
Affiliation:
Age UK Norfolk, Norwich, UK.
JOHN POTTER
Affiliation:
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
MONIQUE RAATS
Affiliation:
Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
PAULA SKIDMORE
Affiliation:
Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, New Zealand.
CAROL VINCE
Affiliation:
Public and Patient Involvement in Research (PPIRes), Research & Development Lakeside 400, Norwich, UK.
AMANDER WELLINGS
Affiliation:
Public and Patient Involvement in Research (PPIRes), Research & Development Lakeside 400, Norwich, UK.
LEE HOOPER
Affiliation:
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Kathleen Lane, School of Allied Health Professions, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: kathleen.lane@uea.ac.uk
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Abstract

Many older women reduce the amount of cooking and food preparation they do in later life. While cooking may be seen as traditionally associated with women's family roles, little is known about the impact of such reduced engagement with food on their lives. This paper presents the findings from a one-year qualitative study (Changes Around Food Experience, CAFE) of the impact of reduced contact with preparing and cooking meals from scratch for 40 women, aged 65–95 years, living in Norfolk, United Kingdom. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observations. Women's reasons for reducing food-related activities included changes in health, loss of a partner or a caring role, and new patterns of socialising. Disengagement from cooking and shopping was not found to entail predominantly negative feelings, passive acceptance or searching for forms of support to re-enable more cooking from scratch. Accounts evidenced the dynamic adaptability of older women in actively managing changed relationships with food. In exploring new meal options, older women were not simply disengaging from their environments. CAFE findings linked women's engagement with their environments to how they were using formal services and, even more, to the value they placed on social engagement and being out and about. Through the connections they fostered with friends, family and community, older women actively enabled their continued involvement in their social, public and family spheres. Reduced contact with preparing and cooking meals from scratch, therefore, did not induce or imply passivity or debility in the CAFE cohort. By contrast, it involved their exploring new means of retaining what was important to them about food in the context of their lived situation and social connections with friends, family, the community and public spheres.

Keywords

older womenfood practicesshoppingsocial engagementdynamismlifecourse changesadaptations in later life
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , April 2014 , pp. 645 - 669
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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