Quality of Life and the Role of Food and Eating as Described by Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

While food and eating are important determinants of health, there is limited information on how they affect quality of life (QOL). This study aimed to understand (1) the factors that impact QOL, (2) the effect of food and eating on QOL, from the perspective of community-dwelling older adults. Twenty-five older adults completed semi-structured interviews.

Service Awareness Among Older Adults Experiencing Barriers to Food and Eating.

Objective: To explore (1) the services older adults use to address the barriers to food access they face and (2) how they found out about these services.

Design: Semistructured, basic descriptive qualitative in-person interviews.

Setting: Senior center and participants' homes.

Measuring Food Insecurity in Older Adults Using Both Physical and Economic Food Access, NHANES 2013-18.

Background: Economic food insecurity tools are used to detect need for assistance in the general population. However, in older adults, food insecurity can also be due to factors other than economic, such as physical inability to shop or cook.

Objectives: We determined: 1) the proportion of older adults in the United States who experience physical and/or economic food insecurity; 2) differences in characteristics, diet quality, chronic conditions, and depression by economic and/or physical food insecurity; and 3) the relation of physical and economic food insecurity with diet quality and with depression.

Sodium and Potassium Intake, the Sodium to Potassium Ratio, and Associated Characteristics in Older Adults, NHANES 2011-2016.

Background: Sodium, potassium, and the balance between these 2 nutrients are associated with hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and prevalence of these conditions increases with age. However, limited information is available on these intakes among older adults.

Objective: Our aim was to explore the socioeconomic and health factors associated with usual sodium and potassium intakes and the sodium to potassium (Na:K) ratio of older adults.

Awareness and use of nutrition information predict measured and self-rated diet quality of older adults in the USA.

Objectives: To examine: (1) diet quality of older adults, using the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) and self-rated diet quality, (2) characteristics associated with reported awareness and use of nutrition information and (3) factors associated with HEI score and self-rated diet quality.

Design: Cross-sectional study. Based on Day 1 and/or Day 2 dietary recalls, the Per-Person method was used to estimate HEI-2010 component and total scores.

Toward a Better Understanding of Listeriosis Risk among Older Adults in the United States: Characterizing Dietary Patterns and the Sociodemographic and Economic Attributes of Consumers with These Patterns.

Abstract: Older adults are at higher risk of invasive listeriosis compared with the general population. Some foods are more likely than others to be contaminated with or to contain high levels of Listeria monocytogenes. The objectives of this study were to (i) determine dietary consumption patterns among older adults in the United States; (ii) evaluate sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older adults associated with each pattern; (iii) determine intake of foods associated with larger relative risk of listeriosis within these patterns; and (iv) rank these patterns based on risk.

Measuring Nutrition-Related Unmet Needs in Recently Hospital-Discharged Homebound Older Adults.

Functional limitations in homebound older adults may cause difficulties with obtaining and preparing adequate healthy food. Services exist to help with these difficulties, however, not all individuals who could benefit receive them. This secondary analysis of observational data, obtained via questionnaires from homebound, recently hospital discharged older adults (n = 566), aimed to identify the prevalence and correlates of unmet need for such services, and to examine the disagreement between self-reported need for a service and functional limitation that could be addressed by that service.

Food Anxiety Is Associated with Poor Health Status Among Recently Hospital-Discharged Older Adults.

Older adults returning home from the hospital may encounter health issues that cause anxiety about their ability to obtain enough food. Home-delivered meal (HDM) programs support nutritional needs and improve food security of those who cannot provide for themselves. A study conducted in six states examined feelings of anxiety about getting enough food in older adults (aged 60 years and older), comparing three time points: prior to hospitalization, at hospitalization (n = 566) and after receiving HDMs for two months posthospitalization (n = 377).

Home-Delivered Meals and Nutrition Status Among Older Adults.

The trend among older adults in the United States is to "age in place" instead of opting for institutionalization. To maintain older adults with chronic conditions in their homes and to improve health after hospitalization, comprehensive social, health, and nutrition services are essential. Quality of dietary intake is crucial and yet often underestimated.