The Relationship Between Dietary Variety and Nutritional and Health Status in the Elderly of Taiwan

• Main Authors: Meng-Zhang Lee, 李孟璋
• Other Authors: Meei-Shyuan Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13552022630541683891

碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 公共衛生學研究所 === 92 === Good nutrition is essential to the health and quality of life of the elderly. Because of the heterogeneous nature of diet in the elderly, it would be great impact on public health practice if there is a simple tool or concept for identifying elderly at nutritional risk available. Dietary variety is one of the most important ways to ensure sufficient nutrients intake and one of the key components of healthy diet. Therefore, evaluating dietary variety may identify the potential nutrition problems. The purposes of the present study were using data obtained from the Second Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT 2), 1999-2000 to (1) assess the extent of variety of diet ; (2) find the determinants of dietary variety; (3) assess the association between dietary variety and nutrients intake and (4) examine the effects of dietary variety on nutritional status and health in the elderly of Taiwan. The author used two methods to count dietary variety: (1) variety among major food groups; (2) variety of food items. Results found that sex, age, education levels, living area, living alone, income, cognitive status, special diet (vegetarian and diabetic diet), appetite, meal preparation, food purchaser, chewing ability, supplement use, smoking and alcohol drinking were significant determinants of dietary variety in the elderly population. Those who had higher dietary variety scores, whose nutrients intake were higher. Dairy was the most frequently omitted food group, followed by fruit group in the elderly. In food item variety, frequently consumed food items were rice, fish, egg, vegetables, fruits, meats and beans, but not raw meats, grilled meats, organ meats, processed meats and seafoods. Food group variety was inversely associated with waist circumference, total serum cholesterol and triglycerides. The more varied the food groups consumed, the less probability of deficiency in plasma folate was found. Food item variety had an inverse relation to serum triglycerides. The more varied food items consumed, the less chance of hypertriglycerilemia in the elderly. This study confirmed that dietary variety was positively associated with the nutrition and health status in the elderly of Taiwan.