Nutritional Intake Status of the Elderly Taking Free Congregate Lunch Meals Compared to the Middle-Income Class Elderly

Lee, Joung Won; Kim, Kyung A; Lee, Mee Sook

Abstract

Comparative studies regarding the nutritional status of 93 home-living elderly people taking free congregate lunch meals(FL) and 87 middle income class elderly people(MI) were performed in Taejon city. Data was obtained from questionaires, anthropometry and interviews for the 24-hour dietary recall of 2 nonconsecutive days during August, 1996. The average age for FL was 75.8 years. The monthly familly income for FL belonged to the low-income class. FL females had lower heights and weights than MI females. The average daily nutritional intake of both FL and MI were low, particularly in FL whose %RDA of energy was 68.5%, protein 65%, Ca 29.6%, Fe 50.8%, vitamin A 34.5%, vitamin E 30.5%, riboflavin 40.6%, vitamin C 76.9%. MI's %RDA of energy was 76.4%, protein 80.a2%, Ca 48.1%, Fe 78.6%, vitamin A 67.3%, vitamin E 117.4%, riboflavin 45.6%, vitamin C 136.5%. Comsumption of Zn, vitamin B6 and folic daily average. There was no nutrient having average INQ(Index of nutritional quality) over 1 for either group. The INQs for protein, Ca, Fe and vitamin A were 0.802, 0.377, 0.625 and 0.296 in FL, and 0.900, 0.601, 0.784 and 0.602 in MI, respectively. The MAR(Mean adequacy ratio) was low with the value of 0.500-0.518 in FL and 0.630-0.723 in MI. The percentage of main nutrients from lunch was the highest among the three meals for FL males, while that from breakfast was the highest for MI. Free lunches taken by FL supported higher percentages of main nutrients than home-lunches taken by MI. Eating-out was done more frequently by MI than by FL and that eating-out brought them more nutritional intake. The above data indicated that the dietary nutritional intake status of the FL elderly was very poor in both quantity and quality and that free congregate lunch significantly contributed to the daily nutrient-intake for the FL elderly.