Mediating role of weight concerns in the relationship between seasonality and eating behavior among community-dwelling older adults: A path analysis.

BACKGROUND: Weight concerns are common among older adults, and it is unclear how they may impact the relationship between seasonality and eating behaviors, which can contribute to various health-related issues. AIM: This study investigated the mediating role of weight concerns in the relationship between seasonality and eating behavior among community-dwelling older adults. METHOD: A descriptive correlational analytical design was used on 200 randomly chosen participants who completed the Personal Inventory for Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder Self-Assessment Version, the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire, and the Weight Concern Subscale. A path analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized model. RESULTS: The study findings indicated that most older adults reported moderate-to-severe seasonal variations, moderate enjoyment of food, emotional overeating, emotional undereating, and food fussiness. Weight concern partially mediated the relationship between seasonality and eating behavior. CONCLUSION: By understanding the complex interplay between these factors, weight concerns may play an essential role in mediating the effects of seasonal changes on eating behavior, while seasonal winter symptoms may directly impact eating behavior. These results have potential implications for nurses' efforts to develop interventions to promote healthy eating behaviors and manage weight concerns during seasonal variations, especially in the winter.

Effect of nursing guidelines on first-year nursing students' knowledge and reported practice towards sensory impairments among the elderly.

BACKGROUND: Sensory impairments are common among older adults. These impairments have consequences on activities of daily living and communication with others. Such impairments for the elderly remain a significant public health issue globally. This study aimed to assess effect of nursing guidelines on first-year nursing students' knowledge and reported practice towards sensory impairment among the elderly. METHOD: A Pre- and post-test research design was utilized in this study to assess first year nursing students' knowledge and reported practice towards sensory impairments among the elderly. It was carried out at faculties of nursing affiliated with three universities with a purposive sample (n = 531) of the first-year nursing students. The study was conducted in four phases: Pre-intervention assessment, nursing guidelines development, nursing guidelines implementation, and post-test after one month. The pre- and post-tests were conducted online and included three parts to collect the required data about students' socio-demographic data, students' knowledge about the five senses and changes in these senses among the elderly, and the students' reported practice for coping with changes in these senses among elderly. Student t-tests and an ANOVA test were used to compare means. For qualitative data, comparison was done using chi-square. Pearson correlation coefficient was used for detecting the relations between continuous variables of the study. RESULTS: There are statistically significant differences between the studied subjects means score knowledge and reported practice about the five senses among elderly people in the pre- and the post-tests (P = 0.001). At pre-test the total score mean of students' knowledge was 24.25 while at post-test became 28.16. At pre-test the total score mean of students' reported practice was 38.40 while at post-test became 44.43. There is a relationship between students' knowledge and their reported practice at both pre-test and post-test with P value = 0.001. CONCLUSION: The levels of the first-year nursing students' knowledge and reported practice of the studied sample towards sensory impairment among the elderly were improved after implementation of the nursing guidelines. So, it is recommended that these nursing guidelines could be embedded within the undergraduate curriculum. Raising students' awareness through providing lectures, and workshops on sensory impairment among elderly and how to deal with them, and train students on how to communicate with sensory impairment among the elderly.