A multidisciplinary nutrition education and fitness training program was tested for its effectiveness in lowering lipid profiles of elderly clients through dietary modification and exercise. The program served 31 free-living, predominantly female, black elderly aged 56-88 years. Dietary, anthropometric, biochemical, and fitness assessments were performed before and after the 10-week, biweekly program. Significant decreases (p < 0.05) were seen in waist circumference, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoproteins (LDL-C), and TC/HDL-C ratio. These findings suggest a 10-week, biweekly program can be effective in producing both significant, as well as favorable changes, in atherogenic lipids in elderly black subjects.
It has been suggested that general dissatisfaction with body weight, or anorexia‐like behaviour, may be higher in students majoring in home economics, specifically dietetics, than in students in non‐food and nutrition majors. This observation may be problematic in a student's future personal life or professional practice. The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence of general dissatisfaction with body weight, compared with actual body weight, in a group of college students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course.
The sample included 169 female and 41 male students. Mean body weight and body mass index were 110 ± 20·7% of ideal and 23·4 ± 4·4, respectively. Dissatisfaction with weight was reported by the majority of students, especially females (76·2%). A significant relationship was found between reported weight dissatisfaction and actual weight status for females (P < 0·001). Furthermore, more females in dietetics were dissatisfied with weight (83%) than females in other majors (75%) although the difference was not significant.
These results suggest that, while weight dissatisfaction was not significantly higher in dietetic majors, the high incidence of dissatisfaction in all females is a concern. There are, therefore, potential implications for the educational strategies of home economics faculties regarding appropriate attitudes about weight status and food.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.