Dietary Habits of Older Adults in Serbia: Findings From the National Health Survey.

Objectives: Adults aged 65 years and older comprise one fifth of the Serbian population. Many of them have multiple, often diet-related comorbidities. We aimed to investigate their dietary habits by comparing them with younger adults' and to determine the relation of the differing ones to demographic, socioeconomic and health factors. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of 2013 Serbian National Health Survey data on 14,082 adults. Binary logistic regression was used to determine dietary habits associated with older age (≥65 years) compared to younger age (18-64 years) and to assess their independent predictors in older adults. Results: Older adults more often reported everyday breakfast (OR = 2.085, 95%CI = 1.622-2.680) and brown/wholegrain bread consumption (OR = 1.681, 95% CI = 1.537-1.839), while using margarine (OR = 0.578, 95%CI = 0.397-0.839), discretionary salt (sometimes: OR = 0.648, 95%CI = 0.596-0.705, almost always: OR = 0.522, 95%CI = 0.445-0.614) and consuming fish (two or more times a week: OR = 0.465, 95%CI = 0.383-0.566) less frequently than younger adults. This was mainly positively related to urban environment, affluence, higher education and poor health. Conclusion: Using nationally representative data, we found that older adults reported healthier dietary habits compared to younger adults, which requires timely public health action.

Nutrition and Health Claims Spectra of Pre-Packaged Foods on Serbian Supermarket Shelves: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.

Nutrition and health claims (NHCs) are a powerful tool that influence consumers' final decision on the choice of food products. The purposes of this repeated cross-sectional study were to (i) assess the prevalence of pre-packaged food products containing nutrition and health claims among different food categories, (ii) to determine the type of NHCs labelled on the examined food products, and (iii) to evaluate the trend in the use of NHCs in comparison to the 2012 survey. The survey was conducted immediately before the full enforcement of the new national legislation on NHCs in 2020. It comprised 3141 pre-packaged food products from 10 product categories. In total, 21.2% of food products contained any claim (19.4% contained any nutrition claim; 8.2% contained any health claim). In comparison to the 2012 survey, we observed a rising trend in the presence of NHCs; the use of nutrition claims on food products increased three times and the use of health claims increased 1.3 times in the 2020 survey. Bearing in mind that NHCs are a powerful tool guiding consumers' food purchase decisions, NHCs should be supported by precise legislation and strict surveillance by the public health authorities.