How Do I Fulfll My Nutrition: The Experience of Older Adults Who Live Alone Elida Ulfana 1 , Oktaviana Ristya Anggraini 1 , Rista Fauziningtyas 1 1 Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia ABSTRACT The barriers to living alone get bigger when older adults get older. One of them is being unable to fulfll their nutritional needs. Older adults who live alone must be able to fulfll nutritional needs, personal hygiene and health independently. This research was conducted to describe experience of older adults who live alone to fulfll their nutritional needs in Magetan, East Java. The methodology employed was a phenomenological qualitative design. We conducted in-depth interviews with seven older adults who live alone. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Six themes emerged as the strategy to get ingredient and food were cooked by self, bought from the seller, collected from farm; the barriers to fulflling nutritional needs were getting old, disease and fnancial insufciency. To fulfll the nutritional needs is a challenge for older adults, especially when they get sick. So, they need support from family, neighbors, and government to overcome the barrier. It is expected to be a consideration in policies regarding monitoring programs of the condition of older adults who live alone. Keywords: nutritional need, food, barriers, live alone, older adults Corresponding Author: Rista Fauziningtyas Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia Email: ristafauzinigtyas@fkp.unair.ac.id Introduction The older adults enjoy their old days with their family, but, in certain circumstances and for certain reasons, they decide to live alone. 1 An older adult who lives alone must fulfll their nutritional needs independently. Based on a study in Indonesia, intake of malnutrition was more common in older adult aged 70 years who lived alone. In addition, the incidence of malnutrition is quite high in older adults in rural areas because the diet is unsuitable to the needs. 2 The decision of older adults to live alone can come from themselves or because the family does not want to take care of them. Factors that afect older adults in living alone are cultural factors, family background, and personality. Indonesian cultures adheres to a social system that is collective in nature and most still adhere to the extended family system, which is one house consists of several nuclear families including grandparents. So, it is common for an older adult to live with their family. 3 Confict in the family can also be a reason for older adults to live alone. In addition, there are older adults who want to be independent, actively establish communication with their neighbors, be free to do activities, and do not want to burden their families. However, there are consequences of problems that can afect older adults who choose to live alone, such as the problem of meeting adequate nutritional needs. 4 Research on older adults who living alone has been done, but there has been no in-depth research on the experience of older adults who live alone in fulflling nutritional needs. As such, the researchers are interested in using qualitative research methods with phenomenological designs to explore the barrier to fulfll nutrition for the elderly who live alone in Magetan, Indonesia. Method Study Design, Participants and Sampling: This study employed a qualitative design with a phenomenological approach. This approach allowed the researcher to probe the barriers experienced by the older adults when fulflling their nutritional needs. The researcher selected DOI Number: 10.5958/0976-5506.2019.02282.4