The older population is particularly susceptible to malnutrition, which currently affects 1.3 million people aged 65+ in the United Kingdom. Malnutrition is an outcome of food insecurity and despite demographic changes that have led to a rise in numbers of older people, we know very little about how older people become vulnerable to food insecurity. The aim of this study was therefore to explore older people's everyday food practices in order to expose the strengths and challenges within local and national food systems, and better understand how food insecurity might arise in later life. This empirical study operationalised practice theory using a multi-method ethnographic approach with 25 households aged 60–94 years, comprising interviews, observation, visual methods and food logs. A model of vulnerability developed by Schröder-Butterfill and Marianti framed data collection and analysis. Analysis revealed the assets and adaptations older households used to protect themselves from threats to food security. Factors ranging from changes to physical and mental health, and structural factors such as supermarket design, moved households towards food insecurity. Smaller everyday ‘trivia’, e.g. lack of seating and accessible toilets in supermarkets, accumulated to shift people towards vulnerability. Vulnerability is structured by the habitus but is a fluid, relational, temporal and socially constructed state, and people moved towards and away from vulnerability. We have developed a model that accommodates this fluidity, incorporates the concept of ‘cumulative trivia’ and suggests how the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ could counter-balance and address trivial threats. This model demonstrates to policy makers and those working in public health how vulnerability to food insecurity operates and where interventions could be applied to support households to achieve food security and avoid becoming malnourished.

老年人口特别容易营养不良，目前在英国影响130万65岁以上的人。营养不良是粮食不安全的结果，尽管人口结构变化导致老年人数量增加，但我们对老年人如何变得容易受到粮食不安全的了解甚少。因此，本研究的目的是探索老年人的日常饮食习惯，以揭示地方和国家粮食体系内的优势和挑战，并更好地理解以后的生活中如何可能出现粮食不安全状况。该实证研究使用多方法人种学方法对25个60-94岁的家庭进行了实践理论的操作，包括访谈，观察，视觉方法和食物记录。由Schröder-Butterfill和Marianti开发的漏洞模型框架了数据收集和分析。分析显示，老年家庭用来保护自己免受粮食安全威胁的资产和适应措施。从身体和精神健康的变化等因素到超市设计等结构性因素，使家庭陷入了粮食不安全状况。较小的日常“琐事”，例如，超市里缺乏座位和无障碍洗手间，这些积累使人们容易受到伤害。脆弱性是由习性构成的，但它是一种不稳定的，关系性的，暂时的和社会建构的状态，人们朝着脆弱性前进或远离脆弱性。我们已经开发了一种适应这种流动性的模型，并纳入了“累积琐事”的概念，并提出了“边际收益汇总”如何平衡和应对琐碎威胁的建议。该模型向决策者和从事公共卫生工作的人们展示了对粮食不安全的脆弱性如何运作以及可以在何处采取干预措施来支持家庭实现粮食安全并避免营养不良。