Home-delivered meals programs for the elderly: distribution of services in New York State.

This study examined the ability of six countywide home-delivered meals programs in upstate New York to meet the challenge of serving the elderly in geographically isolated and impoverished regions. The six counties were divided geographically into county subdivisions. For each subdivision, program client levels were analyzed in relation to two subdivision-level census statistics: poverty rates and population densities for community-residing individuals aged 65 years and older. Client levels were positively correlated with population densities but not with poverty rates. These findings suggest that service delivery was concentrated in densely populated regions. In contrast, impoverished and sparsely populated regions received minimal services.