Nutrient intake status, knowledge, source of information and self-perceived health status among older adults in South Carolina.

Abstract

Data on 339 subjects who were over 51 years of age was analyzed and Pearson product variant correlation coefficients were estimated between the variables of nutrient intake, nutrition, knowledge, source of information and self perceived health status. Nutrient status was based on the consumption of eight nutrients (protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin and thiamin). A significant positive relationship was found between nutrition status and nutrition knowledge, but no significant relationships were found between self-perceived health status and nutrition status or between self- erceived health status and nutrition knowledge. A significant Diffrence was found between sources of nutrition knowledge physicians, dietitians, nurses, etc.) and nutrition status usin the chi-square statistic. There was no significant difference on a chi-suare test of sources of nutrition information and self-perceived health status or on self-perceived health status and nutrition status. A stepwise multivariate approach was used to estimate the amount of variance contributed by the independent variables of nutrition knowledge and sources of nutrition information on the dependent variable of nutrition status.