Sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the EU elderly: a comparative analysis in four countries

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the sociodemographic determinants of diet quality of the elderly in four EU countries. Design: Cross-sectional study. For each country, a regression was performed of a multidimensional index of dietary quality v. sociodemographic variables. Setting: In Finland, Finnish Household Budget Survey (1998 and; in Sweden, SNAC-K (2001SNAC-K ( -2004; in the UK, Expenditure & Food Survey (2006-07); in Italy, Multi-purpose Survey of Daily Life (2009). Subjects: One-and two-person households of over-50s (Finland, n 2994; UK, n 4749); over-50 s living alone or in two-person households (Italy, n 7564); over-60 s (Sweden, n 2023).Results: Diet quality among the EU elderly is both low on average and heterogeneous across individuals. The regression models explained a small but significant part of the observed heterogeneity in diet quality. Resource availability was associated with diet quality either negatively (Finland and UK) or in a non-linear or nonstatistically significant manner (Italy and Sweden), as was the preference for food parameter. Education, not living alone and female gender were characteristics positively associated with diet quality with consistency across the four countries, unlike socio-professional status, age and seasonality. Regional differences within countries persisted even after controlling for the other sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: Poor dietary choices among the EU elderly were not caused by insufficient resources and informational measures could be successful in promoting healthy eating for healthy ageing. On the other hand, food habits appeared largely set in the latter part of life, with age and retirement having little influence on the healthiness of dietary choices. KeywordsElderly Ageing Diet quality Socio-economic Sociodemographic Healthy eating Nutritional healthIt is now well established that the EU population is ageing, which creates important challenges for the functioning of public services and raises fundamental questions about the evolution of human welfare. A few figures help appreciate the magnitude and speed of the changes ahead. Eurostat forecasts that the proportion of the EU population over the age of 65 years (80 years) will increase steadily from 16?0 % (4?1 %) in 2010 to 27?8 % (10?1 %) in 2050 (1) . Meanwhile, the demographic projections of the ANCIEN project of the EU Seventh Framework Programme suggest that life expectancy at age 65 years will increase by about 3 years from 2008 to 2040 (2)

Psychological distress in elderly people is associated with diet, wellbeing, health status, social support and physical functioning- a HUNT3 study

“…Furthermore, this study confirm findings from other studies showing that sociodemographic determinants are associated with diet quality [33] and social relationships are linked to dietary behavior [34]. Conklin and colleagues [34] found that being single or widowed was associated with lower scores on vegetable variety, and the associations were enhanced when combined with male gender, living alone or infrequent friend contact.…”

Eating Difficulties, Nutrition, Meal Preferences and Experiences Among Elderly A Literature Overview From a Scandinavian Context

“…The foundations of norms and values regarding food culture, traditions and eating habits are laid early (Edfors & Westergren, 2012). However, food choice is not static and may change during the course of life so that the eating habits of an individual may not be the same in early adulthood as they are in later life (Mattsson Sydner, 2002;Irz et al, 2014). These changes over time also create variations in food habits between different generations, both with regard to food choice as such, as well as with regard to how the meal as a whole is constructed (Mattsson Sydner, 2002).…”

“…Maintenance of a healthy diet is one of the most important factors affecting food choice among older consumers and eating healthy can be regarded as an investment to ensure independency (Lundkvist, Fjellström, Sidenvall, Lumbers, & Raats, 2010). Insufficient resources are however, according to Irz et al (2014), not a driver for poor dietary choices in Sweden and Finland. Thus, there is no common diet that suits the needs and wishes of all elderly people but a few recent studies indicate some general features that can be attributed to food for the elderly from a cultural and geographic context.…”

Dietary availability in elderly Portuguese households

“…Furthermore, another study reported low dietary quality levels for European elders (29) . This therefore highlights that sociodemographic differences in dietary profile should be considered when designing health and nutrition initiatives.…”