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Influences on diet quality in older age: the importance of social factors

Influences on diet quality in older age: the importance of social factors
Influences on diet quality in older age: the importance of social factors
Background: poor diet quality is common among older people, but little is known about influences on food choice, including the role of psychosocial factors at this age.
Objective: to identify psychosocial correlates of diet quality in a community-dwelling population of men and women aged 59–73 years; to describe relationships with change in diet quality over 10 years.
Design: Longitudinal cohort, Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS).
Subjects: HCS participants assessed at baseline (1998–2003: 1,048 men, 862 women); 183 men and 189 women re-assessed in 2011.
Methods: diet was assessed by administered food frequency questionnaire; diet scores were calculated to describe diet quality at baseline and follow-up. A range of psychosocial factors (social support, social network, participation in leisure activities, depression and anxiety, sense of control) were assessed by questionnaire.
Results: at baseline, better diet quality was related to a range of social factors, including increased confiding/emotional social support (men and women), practical support (men) and a larger social network (women) (all P < 0.05). For both men and women, greater participation in social and cognitive leisure activities was related to better diet quality (P < 0.005). There were few associations between measured psychosocial factors at baseline and change in diet score over 10 years, in the follow-up sub-group. However, greater participation in leisure activities, especially cognitive activities, at baseline was associated with smaller declines in diet quality over the 10-year follow-up period for both men (P = 0.017) and women (P = 0.014).
Conclusions: in community-dwelling older adults, a range of social factors, that includes greater participation in leisure activities, were associated with diets of better quality.
0002-0729
277-283
Bloom, Ilse
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Edwards, Mark
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Jameson, Karen A.
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Syddall, Holly E.
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Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
Gale, Catharine R.
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Baird, Janis
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Cooper, Cyrus
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Aihie Sayer, Avan
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Robinson, Sian
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Bloom, Ilse
af2a38ab-3255-414d-afa1-e3089ee45e3f
Edwards, Mark
0b95b131-86cc-4ee7-b5fd-4694d9acbf0d
Jameson, Karen A.
d5fb142d-06af-456e-9016-17497f94e9f2
Syddall, Holly E.
a0181a93-8fc3-4998-a996-7963f0128328
Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
Gale, Catharine R.
5bb2abb3-7b53-42d6-8aa7-817e193140c8
Baird, Janis
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Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Aihie Sayer, Avan
fb4c2053-6d51-4fc1-9489-c3cb431b0ffb
Robinson, Sian
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Bloom, Ilse, Edwards, Mark, Jameson, Karen A., Syddall, Holly E., Dennison, Elaine, Gale, Catharine R., Baird, Janis, Cooper, Cyrus, Aihie Sayer, Avan and Robinson, Sian (2017) Influences on diet quality in older age: the importance of social factors. Age and Ageing, 46 (2), 277-283. (doi:10.1093/ageing/afw180). (PMID:27744301)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: poor diet quality is common among older people, but little is known about influences on food choice, including the role of psychosocial factors at this age.
Objective: to identify psychosocial correlates of diet quality in a community-dwelling population of men and women aged 59–73 years; to describe relationships with change in diet quality over 10 years.
Design: Longitudinal cohort, Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS).
Subjects: HCS participants assessed at baseline (1998–2003: 1,048 men, 862 women); 183 men and 189 women re-assessed in 2011.
Methods: diet was assessed by administered food frequency questionnaire; diet scores were calculated to describe diet quality at baseline and follow-up. A range of psychosocial factors (social support, social network, participation in leisure activities, depression and anxiety, sense of control) were assessed by questionnaire.
Results: at baseline, better diet quality was related to a range of social factors, including increased confiding/emotional social support (men and women), practical support (men) and a larger social network (women) (all P < 0.05). For both men and women, greater participation in social and cognitive leisure activities was related to better diet quality (P < 0.005). There were few associations between measured psychosocial factors at baseline and change in diet score over 10 years, in the follow-up sub-group. However, greater participation in leisure activities, especially cognitive activities, at baseline was associated with smaller declines in diet quality over the 10-year follow-up period for both men (P = 0.017) and women (P = 0.014).
Conclusions: in community-dwelling older adults, a range of social factors, that includes greater participation in leisure activities, were associated with diets of better quality.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 26 August 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 October 2016
Published date: 1 March 2017
Organisations: Faculty of Medicine

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 399876
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/399876
ISSN: 0002-0729
PURE UUID: ce74b43d-89f4-4318-8293-514455427e4d
ORCID for Ilse Bloom: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4893-1790
ORCID for Holly E. Syddall: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0171-0306
ORCID for Elaine Dennison: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3048-4961
ORCID for Catharine R. Gale: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8638
ORCID for Janis Baird: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4039-4361
ORCID for Cyrus Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709
ORCID for Sian Robinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1766-7269

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Date deposited: 02 Sep 2016 09:59
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 05:10

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Contributors

Author: Ilse Bloom ORCID iD
Author: Mark Edwards
Author: Elaine Dennison ORCID iD
Author: Janis Baird ORCID iD
Author: Cyrus Cooper ORCID iD
Author: Avan Aihie Sayer
Author: Sian Robinson ORCID iD

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