Subjective evaluation and attention to individual aspects of a health-promoting diet in healthy older people

Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) submitted: 13 January 2022 / Revision accepted: 18 February 2022

Introduction

Why do older people eat what they eat? Besides appetite and taste, the motive "health" plays a major role [1, 2]. This seems intuitively convincing, since perception and objective prevalence of health impairments increase in older age. A balanced diet can contribute significantly to the goal of healthy aging [3]. This is particularly feasible for healthy seniors who live independently and still have good resources to organize their daily lives, including shopping and meal preparation, in a self-determined manner. However, not all older people eat according to the recommendations and often energy and nutrient intake is insufficient, even for older people living independently [4–6].

Regardless of age, evidence shows that people who place a high value on health in their food choices actually eat healthier – however, this relationship is rather weak and only applies to certain aspects of a healthy diet, e.g. fruit and vegetable consumption [7, 8]. In addition, certain components of a balanced diet are rarely considered by older people at the behavioral level – even when they report that their eating behavior is highly health-oriented [9] or follows dietary recommendations [10]. Therefore, for improved target group-specific nutrition education, both knowledge of the extent to which older people are aware of the principles of a balanced diet and knowledge of the extent to which these are taken into account in their own eating behavior could be useful.

Abstract

Older people are considered to have a relatively high level of nutritional awareness. However, it is not yet known which importance they attach to individual aspects of a healthy diet. Using standardized questionnaires, 159 healthy seniors (78 ± 3 years, 50% female) were asked about the importance of and attention to 15 nutritional aspects and about their usual food consumption. The recommendation "drinking 1–1.5 liters a day" was rated most frequently as "very important" (69.8%), while "not eating too little" and "eating legumes" were rated least frequently (10.1% each). There was a high level of agreement between rating of importance and attention, with high ratings of importance more common across the board. For most nutritional aspects, ratings of importance or attention were also reflected in reported food intake. The discrepancies identified between rating and attention imply that, in addition to purely imparting knowledge, nutrition education and counseling should also address the possibilities for implementing nutrition aspects in everyday life.

Keywords: health-promoting diet, senior citizens, private household, dietary attitudes

Full text PDF (free version)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode