A study of diet in older community-dwelling adults in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the Southampton Longitudinal Study of Ageing (SaLSA)
A study of diet in older community-dwelling adults in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the Southampton Longitudinal Study of Ageing (SaLSA)
Introduction: adequate nutrition is important for health in later life. Older adults are especially vulnerable to adverse outcomes following infection by COVID-19 and have commonly spent a disproportionate time within their own homes to reduce risk of infection. There are concerns that advice to shield may have led to malnutrition as older adults may modify daily routines including usual shopping habits. The aims of this study were to report self-reported pandemic-related changes in diet and examine lifestyle and medical correlates of these changes in older UK community-dwelling adults.
Methods: we recruited 491 participants from the city of Southampton, UK. Participants completed a postal questionnaire in summer/autumn 2021, over a year after the first UK national lockdown was announced. The questionnaire ascertained demographic and lifestyle factors, in addition to number of comorbidities, nutrition risk scores, and presence of frailty. Associations between these participant characteristics in relation to self-reported changes in diet quality (lower, similar or higher when compared to before the first lockdown) were examined using ordinal logistic regression.
Results: median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age was 79.8 (77.0, 83.7) years. Overall, 11 (4.9%) men and 25 (9.4%) women had poorer diet quality compared to before the first UK lockdown. The following participant characteristics were associated with increased risk of being in a worse category for change in diet quality after adjustment for sex: lower educational attainment (p = 0.009); higher BMI (p < 0.001); higher DETERMINE (a malnutrition assessment) score (p = 0.004); higher SARC-F score (p = 0.013); and self-reported exhaustion in the previous week on at least 3 days (p = 0.002).
Conclusions: individuals at higher nutritional risk were identified as reporting increased risk of deterioration in diet quality during the pandemic. Further investigation of the factors leading to these changes, and an understanding of whether they are reversible will be important, especially for future pandemic management.
COVID-19, diet, frailty, older adults, sarcopenia
Laskou, Faidra
ea7e7a54-092d-4baf-8b18-e0d62c47b878
Bevilacqua, Gregorio
e93e3b18-7d1e-4da5-9fcd-e6b4637e1c2e
Westbury, Leo D.
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Bloom, Ilse
af2a38ab-3255-414d-afa1-e3089ee45e3f
Aggarwal, Pritti
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Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Patel, Harnish P.
e1c0826f-d14e-49f3-8049-5b945d185523
Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
13 January 2023
Laskou, Faidra
ea7e7a54-092d-4baf-8b18-e0d62c47b878
Bevilacqua, Gregorio
e93e3b18-7d1e-4da5-9fcd-e6b4637e1c2e
Westbury, Leo D.
5ed45df3-3df7-4bf9-bbad-07b63cd4b281
Bloom, Ilse
af2a38ab-3255-414d-afa1-e3089ee45e3f
Aggarwal, Pritti
d13e6516-5b53-4789-b627-115fcebd0d2b
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Patel, Harnish P.
e1c0826f-d14e-49f3-8049-5b945d185523
Dennison, Elaine
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
Laskou, Faidra, Bevilacqua, Gregorio, Westbury, Leo D., Bloom, Ilse, Aggarwal, Pritti, Cooper, Cyrus, Patel, Harnish P. and Dennison, Elaine
(2023)
A study of diet in older community-dwelling adults in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the Southampton Longitudinal Study of Ageing (SaLSA).
Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, [988575].
(doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.988575).
Abstract
Introduction: adequate nutrition is important for health in later life. Older adults are especially vulnerable to adverse outcomes following infection by COVID-19 and have commonly spent a disproportionate time within their own homes to reduce risk of infection. There are concerns that advice to shield may have led to malnutrition as older adults may modify daily routines including usual shopping habits. The aims of this study were to report self-reported pandemic-related changes in diet and examine lifestyle and medical correlates of these changes in older UK community-dwelling adults.
Methods: we recruited 491 participants from the city of Southampton, UK. Participants completed a postal questionnaire in summer/autumn 2021, over a year after the first UK national lockdown was announced. The questionnaire ascertained demographic and lifestyle factors, in addition to number of comorbidities, nutrition risk scores, and presence of frailty. Associations between these participant characteristics in relation to self-reported changes in diet quality (lower, similar or higher when compared to before the first lockdown) were examined using ordinal logistic regression.
Results: median (lower quartile, upper quartile) age was 79.8 (77.0, 83.7) years. Overall, 11 (4.9%) men and 25 (9.4%) women had poorer diet quality compared to before the first UK lockdown. The following participant characteristics were associated with increased risk of being in a worse category for change in diet quality after adjustment for sex: lower educational attainment (p = 0.009); higher BMI (p < 0.001); higher DETERMINE (a malnutrition assessment) score (p = 0.004); higher SARC-F score (p = 0.013); and self-reported exhaustion in the previous week on at least 3 days (p = 0.002).
Conclusions: individuals at higher nutritional risk were identified as reporting increased risk of deterioration in diet quality during the pandemic. Further investigation of the factors leading to these changes, and an understanding of whether they are reversible will be important, especially for future pandemic management.
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Frontiers paper on impact of COVID-19 (revised manuscript) changes final accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
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fnut-09-988575
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 28 December 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 January 2023
Published date: 13 January 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information: FL and HP are supported by the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, Nutrition, and the University of Southampton. These funding bodies had no role in writing of the manuscript or in the decision to submit for publication.
Keywords:
COVID-19, diet, frailty, older adults, sarcopenia
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 473953
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473953
ISSN: 2296-861X
PURE UUID: 6963fda5-a8ad-44ad-8735-b1d72581e09a
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Date deposited: 06 Feb 2023 17:42
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:28
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Contributors
Author:
Faidra Laskou
Author:
Gregorio Bevilacqua
Author:
Harnish P. Patel
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