Health Status and Food Intake Frequency of Elderly Residents During COVID-19 Community Closure — Jiangxia District, Wuhan City, China, 2020

Abstract

What is already known about this topic? Elderly persons are vulnerable to infectious diseases, and nutritional status and health conditions were important to evaluate for disease prevention and ability to recover for the elderly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. What is added by this report? In our study, a rapid assessment questionnaire was used to investigate the change of household life and dietary intake of the elderly (aged 60 years or more) during community closure. Food consumption frequency of aquatic food products, soybeans, and fresh fruits declined dramatically with reductions of 70.9%, 70.9%, and 53.0%, respectively, and 49.6% of the elderly lived with chronic non-communicable diseases but had little knowledge of nutrition and health. What are the implications for public health practice? Community closure measures in Wuhan City have played a key role in cutting off the transmission route of COVID-19 and protecting vulnerable groups. As a high-risk population, the elderly should be advised to maintain and strengthen a balanced diet with proper nutrition through increasing intake of aquatic food products, soybeans, fruits, and vegetables, reducing total caloric intake, and decreasing oil and salt consumption. These measures will be significant for the elderly to reduce the risk of chronic disease complications and COVID-19 infection and to decrease the chance of critical illness.

Individual Preventive Behaviors of COVID-19 and Associated Psychological Factors Among Chinese Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey

“…Since its initial detection in late December 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has been the most severe public health emergency, which has caused over 260 million confirmed cases and more than 5.19 million deaths worldwide inclusive of 28 November 2021 [ Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), 2021 ]. Older adults aged 60 years and above are classified as the high-risk group during the pandemic as they are more susceptible and vulnerable to infectious diseases due to decreased immune function and multi-morbidity ( Kluge, 2020 ; Song et al, 2020 ). The risk of infection progressing to severe cases after confirmation of COVID-19 increases with age in older adults ( Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020 ).…”

Dairy consumption in adults in China: a systematic review

“…In addition, researchers examined the changes of eating habits in elderly residents during COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 in Wuhan city in China, finding that dairy consumption was reduced during this period [ 85 ]. Specifically, a 24.5% reduction was observed among males, and 45.3% among females.…”