Media Contact:
Dr. Jackie McClelland, 919/515-9148

Oct. 18, 2002

Extension Agents Gather to Discuss Nutrition Education for Aged

North Carolina Cooperative Extension agents will convene in Raleigh to discuss better ways of reducing the risk of malnutrition in senior citizens. And their efforts just might leave them singing in the aisles.

The extension professionals will congregate at the Brownstone Hotel on Monday, Oct. 21. They'll show off some of the innovative ways of getting their messages about good nutrition habits across to senior citizens, including some songs that will help seniors learn and remember the helpful tips. North Carolina State University Chancellor Marye Anne Fox will welcome the agents and show NC State's support of the program at 2 p.m.

Media coverage of the event is welcomed.

The Partners in Wellness program, headed by Dr. Jackie McClelland, professor and extension specialist in NC State's Family and Consumer Sciences Department, is a nutrition education program that focuses on the top 10 nutritional risk factors faced by older adults, especially those on limited or fixed incomes. The program is entering its fifth year of working to promote good eating habits. Fifty N.C. counties have extension agents involved in the program.

Older adults are the fastest growing population in the state, according to McClelland. A large percentage of seniors - including about one-fifth of those aged 65 and older and about one-third of those aged 85 and older - live at or below the federal poverty level.

Taking a number of different drugs each day, eating alone and having tooth or mouth problems that make it hard to eat are just a few of the factors that lead to malnutrition, McClelland says. Partners in Wellness attempts to help identify the existence of these factors in people's lives, and then intervene with an appropriate educational program that targets behavioral change, she adds.

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