Age, marital status and changes in dietary habits in later life: a 21-year follow-up among Finnish women

Relationship between Frequency of Meals Comprising Staple Grain, Main, and Side Dishes and Nutritional Adequacy in Japanese Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Meals comprising a staple grain, a main, and side dishes (SMS meals) promote good dietary intake, yet limited studies have examined their multifactorial relationship with dietary intake. We investigated how demographic characteristics, lifestyle, and dietary habits affect the relationship between SMS meal frequency and nutrient intake adequacy. This cross-sectional study analyzed survey data from 331 Japanese adults (208 men and 123 women) aged 30-69 years in February 2019. SMS meal frequency was evaluated according to respondents' answers to how many days a week they consumed ≥2 daily SMS meals. Dietary intake was evaluated using the brief self-administered diet history questionnaire. Differences in nutrient intake adequacy among groups according to SMS meal frequency were determined using multiple logistic regression. Less frequent SMS meals correlated with a lower intake of protein, water-soluble vitamins, and certain minerals, with more individuals falling below the estimated average requirement for nutrient intake. However, no relationship was found between SMS meal frequency and nutrient intake concerning tentative dietary goals for preventing lifestyle-related diseases. Our findings indicate that adopting SMS meals could achieve adequate intake of some nutrients and enhance overall diet quality among Japanese adults.

Associations of childhood and adult socioeconomic circumstances with recommended food habits among young and midlife Finnish employees

Background

Disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances are associated with certain unhealthy food habits such as inadequate consumption of fruit and vegetables. This study examined whether multiple socioeconomic measures are consistently associated with a variety of food habits.

Methods

We examined associations of 2 childhood and 6 adult socioeconomic measures with 8 recommended food habits among 19–39-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. The data were collected in 2017 via online and mailed surveys. Our sample consisted of 4621 employees (80% women). The analyses included adjusted binary logistic regression models.

Results

More advantaged socioeconomic circumstances were positively associated with the recommended consumption of vegetables, fruit or berries, dark bread, skimmed milk products, fish, and cooking oil, but not consistently with red or processed meat and fat spread. All socioeconomic measures were positively associated with having several (6–8) recommended food habits after gender and age adjustments. The strongest associations were found for participant’s education, occupational class, and current financial difficulties. These associations remained after adjustments of childhood and adult socioeconomic measures, although especially participant’s education attenuated the associations for occupational class.

Conclusions

The consistent associations between multiple childhood and adult socioeconomic measures and food habits found among employees highlight the need for improving food habits among people with disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances in particular. Financial barriers together with social aspects of adhering to healthy diets should be considered in future dietary interventions and policy actions.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40795-022-00557-0.

Intergenerational Commensality: A Critical Discussion on Non-Familial Age Groups Eating Together

Connecting intergenerational relationships and commensality has been a neglected area in research and conceptual development within both food and life-course studies. This has been especially true of relations beyond the family. Here, public and private settings are explored in order to examine the relationship between eating together and generationally intelligent empathy. This is to help the discovery of spaces where different generations can interact positively around food and mealtimes. Contemporary social and public health challenges include: to adapt to increased longevity and to build solidarity between generations; to repair the relations between generations arising from institutional segregation; and to increase experiences of generational connection and social inclusion. As age-based cohorts are led to see themselves as separate from each other, we must find ways of building and negotiating new complementary roles for different parts of the life-course. Commensality, eating together at the same table provides an important cultural location and opportunity around which complementary understandings between generations may be built. A new framework is proposed to help identify and critically examine the variables underpinning non-familial intergenerational commensal spaces.

Potential for, and readiness to, dietary-style changes during the retirement status passage: a systematic mixed-studies review

Context

Unfavorable diets contribute to the global burden of disease and particularly affect individuals’ health in old age. To promote healthy aging, it is vital to understand the biographical circumstances under which diets manifest and change.

Objective

This systematic mixed-studies review explored changes in dietary styles of people facing retirement.

Data Sources

Seven electronic databases were searched systematically, along with reference lists.

Data Extraction

Five qualitative and five quantitative studies were identified out of n = 974 records screened. Relevant study characteristics were extracted with a piloted form.

Data Synthesis

A qualitative convergent synthesis design was conducted.

Results

Study results were inconsistent. The majority of studies identified various dietary-style changes after retirement – some in favorable ways (eg, increased vegetable consumption [n = 4]) and some in rather unfavorable ways (eg, increased snacking [n = 2]). Influencing factors were changes in mealtime structures, available time, and financial situations accompanying retirement.

Conclusion

More high-quality, longitudinal research is needed to build a sound basis for interventions by utilizing the retirement transition as a window of opportunity for dietary changes.

Systematic Review Registration

PROSPERO registration no. CRD42018074049.

Increased Waist-to-height Ratio May Contribute to Age-related Increase in Cardiovascular Risk Factors

BACKGROUND

The risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) increases with age. The objective was to determine whether lifestyle and dietary behaviors and anthropometric measures, which are affected by these behaviors, contribute to the increase of CVD risk factors across age categories of 20-50-year-old.

METHODS

In a cross-sectional design, 437 adults aged 20-50-year-old were selected from households living in Shiraz. Risk factors of CVD, including body mass index (BMI), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), blood pressure, fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, and low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C and HDL-C, respectively) as well as lifestyle behaviors (physical activity and smoking), dietary habits, and food intakes were assessed across the age categories of 20-29, 30-39, and 40-50 years. Linear regression was used to examine the contribution of different variables to the age-related increase of CVD risk factors.

RESULTS

All CVD risk factors, except for HDL-C, significantly increased across age categories. Older subjects had healthier dietary habits and food intakes, but they possessed nonsignificantly lower physical activity and higher smoking rate compared to younger adults. Adjusting for physical activity, smoking, and BMI did not change the significant positive association between age and CVD risk factors but adjusting for WHtR disappeared associations for blood pressure, triglycerides, and metabolic syndrome although significant associations remained for FBG and total and LDL-C.

CONCLUSIONS

Age-related increase of CVD risk factors occurred independent of lifestyle habits. WHtR, but not BMI, may partially contribute to the age-related increase in CVD risk factors.

Beneficial changes in food consumption and nutrient intake after 10 years of follow-up in a Mediterranean cohort: the SUN project

Background

The assessment of changes in dietary habits provides interesting information on whether or not the observed trends are in line with accepted nutritional guidelines. The objective was to evaluate within-subject longitudinal changes in food consumption and nutrient intake and in a 10-year follow-up study.

Methods

The SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) project is a prospective Spanish cohort study. Diet was assessed using a 136-item food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ), previously validated in Spain. The participants were 3036 university graduates (55.8 % women) of Spain and the main outcome measures the changes in dietary quality and in food consumption and nutrient intake. Paired t-tests and conditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate within-subject longitudinal dietary changes and the risk of inadequacy respectively, after 10 years of follow-up.

Results

During follow-up, participants showed a relevant and significant increase (p < 0.001) in the consumption of fruits (7.4 %), vegetables (8.6 %), low-fat dairy products (35.2 %), lean meat (12.4 %), fish (2.9 %), whole grains (53.2 %), nuts (52.4 %) and a significant decrease in legumes (−7.4 %), whole-fat dairy products (−44.2 %), red meat (−17.6 %), sugar-sweetened beverages (−58.7 %) and wine (−11.9 %). With respect to nutrients, we found a higher proportion of carbohydrates (3.6 %) and fiber (7.4 %) and a decrease in total energy intake (2.7 %), total fat (−4.5 %), SFA (−9.4 %), MUFA (−4.9 %), PUFA (−12.7 %), w-3 and w-6 fatty acids (−9.1 and −20.5 % respectively) and cholesterol (−9.6 %).

Conclusions

In this Mediterranean cohort study, mainly beneficial changes in the consumption of most foods and macronutrients were observed after 10 years of follow-up.

A comparison of the dietary patterns derived by principal component analysis and cluster analysis in older Australians

BACKGROUND

Despite increased use of dietary pattern methods in nutritional epidemiology, there have been few direct comparisons of methods. Older adults are a particularly understudied population in the dietary pattern literature. This study aimed to compare dietary patterns derived by principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) in older adults and to examine their associations with socio-demographic and health behaviours.

METHODS

Men (n = 1888) and women (n = 2071) aged 55-65 years completed a 111-item food frequency questionnaire in 2010. Food items were collapsed into 52 food groups and dietary patterns were determined by PCA and CA. Associations between dietary patterns and participant characteristics were examined using Chi-square analysis. The standardised PCA-derived dietary patterns were compared across the clusters using one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS

PCA identified four dietary patterns in men and two dietary patterns in women. CA identified three dietary patterns in both men and women. Men in cluster 1 (fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, fish and poultry) scored higher on PCA factor 1 (vegetable dishes, fruit, fish and poultry) and factor 4 (vegetables) compared to factor 2 (spreads, biscuits, cakes and confectionery) and factor 3 (red meat, processed meat, white-bread and hot chips) (mean, 95% CI; 0.92, 0.82-1.02 vs. 0.74, 0.63-0.84 vs. -0.43, -0.50- -0.35 vs. 0.60 0.46-0.74, respectively). Women in cluster 1 (fruit, vegetables and fish) scored highest on PCA factor 1 (fruit, vegetables and fish) compared to factor 2 (processed meat, hot chips cakes and confectionery) (1.05, 0.97-1.14 vs. -0.14, -0.21- -0.07, respectively). Cluster 3 (small eaters) in both men and women had negative factor scores for all the identified PCA dietary patterns. Those with dietary patterns characterised by higher consumption of red and processed meat and refined grains were more likely to be Australian-born, have a lower level of education, a higher BMI, smoke and did not meet physical activity recommendations (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

PCA and CA identified comparable dietary patterns within older Australians. However, PCA may provide some advantages compared to CA with respect to interpretability of the resulting dietary patterns. Older adults with poor dietary patterns also displayed other negative lifestyle behaviours. Food-based dietary pattern methods may inform dietary advice that is understood by the community.