NUTRITIONAL
AND HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF FOOD INSUFFICIENCY AMONG U.S. ELDERLY
JUNG
SUN LEE, EDWARD A. FRONGILLO, JR., AND CHRISTINE M. OLSON Division of
Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
The
purpose of this study was to examine the consequences of food insufficiency
for the nutritional and health status of the elderly over 60 years old
in the U.S.
The
data analyzed were from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES III, 1988-94), the first NHANES without an upper age
limit. Data included 6596 elderly aged between 60 and 90 years.
Multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were used to asses
the extent to which food insufficient elderly were likely to have lower
nutrient intake, anthropometry, and self-reported health status.
Food
insufficiency was significantly associated with low intake of energy,
protein, carbohydrate, saturated fat, niacin, Vitamins B6, B2, B12,
magnesium, iron, and zinc, as well as, lower skinfold thickness.
Also food insufficient elderly were 2.27 times more likely to report
fair and poor health status.
These
results indicate that food insufficient elderly have worse nutritional
and health status than do food sufficient elderly. This calls
for nutrition services to be targeted to food insufficient elderly in
order to ameliorate food insufficiency, thus prevent its adverse nutritional
and health consequences.
Funding
for this project provided by the USDA.
Contact
person:
Jung Sun Lee
Division of Nutritional Sciences
370 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Telephone: 607/255/0763
Fax: 607/255/0178
E-mail: j1138@cornell.edu
