Effect of Nutrition Support Program for the Elderly in a Rural Community / 農村醫學 地域保健

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to assess the effects of nutrition support for the elderly in rural communities. METHODS: The data for this study were obtained from 148 aged over 65 years in G district(70 intervention group and 78 control group). General characteristics, physical health status, food intake, dietary habits, knowledge of nutrition and nutrition risk factors of the subjects were examined by individual interview. The participants were divided into two groups through the first questionnaire of nutrition nutritional intervention group(nutritional intervention and education of nutrition) and control group(education of nutrition alone). RESULTS: Nutritional intervention group showed significant increase of energy intake to 87.4% from 71.0% and of most nutrients except vitamin A and niacin after intervention. After nutritional intervention program, depression index was significantly decreased and changes of food habits, self-efficacy and conviction indices were significantly increased. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the nutritional intervention serving foods for short-term intervention period was very effective in improving the nutritional status. In addition, it suggested that it was not enough for nutritional improvement of the elderly to provide public health education or counseling alone, therefore, for achieving its goals, it should be needed proper nutritional supply to them.