Part of the meal program at Albany County Department for Aging is to provide monthly

nutrition newsletters to all participants of the congregate meal sites and home delivered meals.
New York States Wellness in Nutrition Program (WIN) provides funding to support nutrition
counseling and nutrition education; this program requires the monthly newsletter distribution.
The mission of the Department for Aging is to provide the highest quality supportive
services to seniors and their families. Their goal is to enable seniors to remain safely in their
homes and thrive in their communities for as long as they desire. Some other purposes of the
program are to reduce hunger and food insecurity and promote health and well-being of older
adults. By providing nutrition and health promotion services the program aims to delay the
onset of adverse health conditions resulting from poor nutrition health or sedentary behaviors.
These monthly newsletters support the departments missions and goals by providing up to
date, evidence based nutrition information that seniors would otherwise not have access to.
These newsletters may help to correct inaccurate nutrition information that they have
previously received. These newsletters also promote that there is a Registered Dietitian
available to them if they have any questions or concerns.
I decided to focus the education on health and cancer prevention. While I was doing my
needs assessment I noticed that the cancer statistics for Albany County were much higher than
the state and national rates. In males in Albany County the rate per 100,000 people for all
malignant tumors is 608.2 compared to 580.8 in NYS and 502.7 nationally. For females, Albany
County has a rate of 459.1, 451.4 for NYS and 405.1 nationally. Since cancer risk increases in
the senior population, I thought it was necessary to get this information to them.
The goal for the literacy level for the newsletter was about an 8th grade level. This was
determined because about 92% of the Albany County Population have completed a high school
degree or higher. As of a 1992 census the population 55 years and older in American had
completed about 12 years of schooling. Of course, this is not to say that everyone has, and the
population that this program serves may have a lower literacy level, for this reason the goal was
an 8
th
grade level. Using readability-score.com which takes into account multiple reading
indices, the average grade level for the newsletter was at about 9
th
grade. Due to the nature of
the topic it was necessary to use some larger words; however the reading level was scaled
down from its original which was about the 10
th
grade level.
The newsletters are copied and sent to each meal provider every month. Each provider
must keep track of how many newsletters they distribute and report back to the dietitian. The
providers can choose how and when they wish to distribute the newsletters. They can be
distributed multiple times throughout the month at congregate meals to reach the most
people. For home delivered meals they will be distributed in one batch per month. Congregate
sites are also required to do six nutrition presentations throughout the year. Sites are
encouraged to use these newsletters as the basis of their presentation, so they may choose to
hand them out on this day.
Newsletter References:
Alcohol and Cancer Risk. National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/alcohol. Updated June 24, 2013. Accessed
May 28, 2014.
Escott-Stump, Sylvia. Nutrition and Diagnosis Related Care. 7
th
Edition. Baltimore, MD:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2012.
Harms of Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting. National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cessation. Updated January 12, 2011.
Accessed May 28, 2014.
How much physical activity do adults need? Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html. Updated January 7,
2014. Accessed May 28, 2014.
Obesity and Cancer Risk. National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/obesity. Updated January 3, 2012.
Accessed May 28, 2014.
Physical Activity and Cancer. National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/physicalactivity. Updated August
22, 2009. Accessed May 28, 2014.
Probability of Developing Invasive Cancers During Selected Age Intervals by Sex, US, 2008-2010.
American Cancer Society Surveillance Research.
http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/document/acspc-
041784.pdf. Published 2014. Accessed May 28, 2014.
Literacy score determined at https://readability-score.com/
Software used: Microsoft Publisher