The Impact of Nutritional Knowledge on the Quantity and the Quality of Diet Among the Southern Rural Elderly.

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: To examine the relationship between diet quality and nutrition knowledge of the rural elderly.Volunteers (n=1555) of elderly residing in counties with 70% or more rural population from 9 Southern states (AL, AK, GA, KY, MD, MO, MS, TN, TX) participated in the study. This study was designed to delineate whether there was a relationship between nutrition knowledge and the quality of diet and nutrient consumption among the rural elderly, one of most neglected segments of our population. The sample consisted of 47.8% Blacks and 51.9% Whites, 15.8% male and 84.2% female. The age ranged from 60 to 102 yrs. (mean ± SD: 72.8 yrs. ± 7.6) and 57.6% lived alone; only 34.9% of the elderly completed high school or higher education. 43% of the elderly had a per capita monthly income less than $450, and 27.5% were Food Stamp Program participants. Information collected from these participants through face-to-face interviews included: socioeconomic factors, health history, 2 non-consecutive days food intakes by 24-hr recall, and nutritional knowledge, practice, and attitudes. The nutrition knowledge and practice questions were adapted from the USDA Diet and Health Knowledge Survey. Nutrient intakes were computed from the 24-hr recall data by using Nutritionist IV (N-Squared, San Bruno, CA). The Diet Quality Index (DQI) was computed based on R. Patterson's method (JADA,. 94: 57-64, 1994). Knowledge scores on dietary fiber and fat/cholesterol were trisected - high, medium and low. One-way factorial ANOVA technique was used to discern the difference in DQI and nutrient consumption as related to their knowledge scores. The DQI increased significantly with the knowledge scores on dietary fiber ((p<0.001) and on fat/cholesterol (p<0.0001). Those with higher knowledge scores on fiber consumed significantly more fiber (p<0.001), and those with higher scores on fat/cholesterol consumed significantly lower amounts of cholesterol (p<0.0002) and fat (p<0.05), particularly saturated fat (p<0.003). This study clearly demonstrated the importance of nutrition knowledge to quality of diet and higher consumtion of fiber as well as lower fat consumtion. (Supported by USDA, CSREES, RR6)