Lunch Clubs (LCs) have been long considered a valuable community-based service to promote health and wellbeing of older people⁽Reference Dwyer and Hardill¹⁾, however people attending LCs are poorly characterised. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of those attending lunch clubs in South-West England and the reasons for attendance. Body weight (kg), height (m), hand-grip strength (kg) and waist circumference (WC) (cm) were measured by a trained observer following standard protocols. The length of attendance to LC, transport utilised and distance travelled to the LC was also explored. Participants reported self-rated health status, self-rated physical activity and reasons of attendance via a Likert scale.

Forty older individuals from 5 LCs completed the survey during the day of their LC visit. Characteristics are shown in the table below.

Overall, participants were older adults (65 % over 75 years old), overweight, abdominally obese with low hand-grip strength. Self-rated current health was rated as ‘good to very good’ by 68 % of participants; 60 % reported their current health being the same as the previous year, with 23 % reporting an improvement and 18 % declaring worsened health in relation with the previous year. Current self-reported physical activity was rated as ‘moderate’ by 63 %; low physical activity was reported by 28 % of participants. Only 3 % reported an increase in physical activity levels on the previous year with the remainder reporting levels “about the same” or lower (85 % and 12·5 % respectively). Most (65 %) participants lived alone being either widowed (68 %), single (8 %) or divorced (2 %). None of them lived in a care home nor lived solely on benefits; 50 % receive state pension. Word of mouth was the most popular (70 %) route to find out about the LC. 63 % of participants lived within half a mile ratio from the LC; 27 % were travelling over a mile to attend a LC. The most popular means of access to lunch club were getting a lift with a friend or walking to the lunch club (35 % and 35 % of participants respectively). Overall, over 73 % of participants rated that ‘meeting friends’ (92 %); ‘to eat out’ (78 %), ‘to have a hot meal’ (75 %), and ‘for a home cooked style meal’ (73 %) were important reasons to attend lunch clubs. Other factors such as ‘not having to cook’, ‘affordability of a meal’ and ‘the additional activities (bingo, raffles and talks)’ were rated as very important or important by only 45 %, 40 % and 18 % of participants, respectively.

Older adults attending LCs in the South West of England reported good self-rated health, nonetheless they are characterised by high rates of overweight and obesity, abdominal obesity and low muscle strength placing them at risk of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity⁽Reference Prado, Wells and Smith²⁾. These findings suggest the need for lifestyle interventions targeting these health problems.