Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the willingness of using out-of-pocket home-delivered meals and the willingness-to-pay price of four types of the services for the community-dwelling elderly.
Methods: The participants were from the students of The Elderly University of Taichung Ganlin Foundation, a non-governmental organization about social welfare. Data were collected by self-filled questionnaires under the instruction of the researcher. Total 524 persons were issued. 268 persons participated the interview, with participation rate of 51.3%. Only 232 questionnaires were completed and valid. The four types of the home-delivered meal service were the individualized meals, safety confirmation service, semi-processed food with menu, and dinner-party with transportation and health conference activity every month. Logistic regression was conducted for analysis.
Results: There was 91.0% of the participant’s willingness to purchase home-delivered meals. The average willingness-to-pay price of the four kind of services were: NT 99.6 dollars for individualized meals, NT 107.3 dollars for safety confirmation service, NT 43.7 dollars for semi-processed food, and NT 113.1 dollars for dinner-party activity. The factors related to willingness of purchasing home-delivered meals was "climbing stairs is necessary when go out for shopping.”. Average price of current meals was related to using individualized meals and market nearby was related to use dinner party activity. The factors related to the price of the four services included: average price of current meals was related to individualized meals and safety confirm, climbing stairs when shopping for grocery was related to semi-processed food, and market nearby was related to the price of attending dinner party activity.
Discussion: Although the result can not generalize to all the elderly population, there are need of using home-delivered meals and some elderly are willing to pay for different kinds of such services. We suggest that the private sectors may develop and invest the home-delivered meal services. The government should set up the regulations to assure the quality and encourage the service development.
