Nutritional well-being among older adults is critical for maintaining health, increasing longevity, and decreasingthe impactofchronicillness. However, few well-controlledstudies have examinednutritionalbehav ior change among low-income older adults. A prospective, controlled, randomized design examined a fivesession nutrition education module delivered to limited-resource older adults (N = 703) in Congregate Nutrition sites by Cooperative Extensionagents. Experimentalgroupparticipantswere significantly more likely than con trol groupparticipants to increase multivitamin use, to increase calcium supplementuse, to read labels of dietary supplements, to carry a supplement and/or medication list, and to discuss such use with their health care profes sional. The study addresses weaknesses in the literature by using a theoretically derived education component, implementing the intervention within a setting regularly used by low-income older adults, employing random ized assignment to intervention and control conditions, and using hierarchical linear modeling to deal with “nested” data.
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