Korean J Community Nutr.  2011 Feb;16(1):145-154. 10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.1.145.

Association between Risk Factors for Health and Taste Perceptions of Middle-aged and Elderly People Living in Rural Areas

• Lee MS
• Oh SI
• Kwak CS

• KMID: 2263813
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2011.16.1.145

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between taste perceptions and risk factors for health of Korean elderly living in rural areas. Recognition thresholds for four basic tastes, drug consumption, BMI, fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were assessed in 176 males and 312 females aged between 50 and 88 years. For the recognition threshold of the four basic tastes, alcohol drinking did not influence their sensitivities, but the alcohol drinking group preferred a higher pleasant concentration of NaCl than did the non-alcohol drinking group. However, smoking significantly decreased sensitivities of the four basic tastes. For the pleasant concentration of NaCl, the smoking group tended to prefer a higher concentration than the non-smoking group. Drug consumption, fasting blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, and serum triglycerides did not have a significant correlation to the sensitivity of the four basic tastes and preference of salty solution. Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure may have been positively correlated with the pleasant concentration of NaCl but did not correlate with the recognition thresholds of NaCl and sucrose. Further, systolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with the recognition thresholds of caffeine, whereas diastolic blood pressure was negatively correlated with the recognition thresholds of caffeine and citric acid. The finding that the risk factors for health correlated with taste perception has diagnostic and practical implications for health promotion for the elderly.

Keyword

elderly; taste perception; threshold; risk factors; blood pressure

MeSH Terms

Aged
Alcohol Drinking
Blood Glucose
Blood Pressure
Caffeine
Cholesterol
Citric Acid
Drinking
Fasting
Female
Health Promotion
Humans
Male
Risk Factors
Smoke
Smoking
Sucrose
Taste Perception
Triglycerides
Blood Glucose
Caffeine
Cholesterol
Citric Acid
Smoke
Sucrose
Triglycerides

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