Latent profile analysis of dietary intake in a community-dwelling sample of older Americans

Abstract

Objective:To estimate latent dietary profiles in a community-dwelling sample of older Americans and identify associations between dietary profile membership and individual demographic, socio-economic and health characteristics.Design:Secondary analysis of the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and linked 2013 Health Care and Nutrition Study (HCNS). Latent profile analysis identified mutually exclusive subgroups of dietary intake and bivariate analyses examined associations between dietary profile membership, participant characteristics and nutrient intakes.Setting:USA.Participants:An analytic sample of 3558 adults aged 65 years or older.Results:Four dietary profiles were identified with 15·5 % of the sample having a ‘Healthy’ diet, 42·0 % consuming a ‘Western’ diet, 29·7 % having a diet consisting of high intake of all food groups and 12·7 % reporting relatively low intake of all food groups. Members of the ‘Healthy’ profile reported the greatest socio-economic resources and health, and members of the ‘Low Intake’ profile had the fewest resources and worst health outcomes. Macronutrient and micronutrient intakes varied across profile although inadequate and excessive intakes of selected nutrients were observed for all profiles.Conclusions:We identified dietary patterns among older Americans typified by either selective intake of foods or overall quantity of foods consumed, with those described as ‘Low Intake’ reporting the fewest socio-economic resources, greatest risk of food insecurity and the worst health outcomes. Limitations including the presence of measurement error in dietary questionnaires are discussed. The causes and consequences of limited dietary intake among older Americans require further study and can be facilitated by the HRS and HCNS.

Dietary Patterns, Their Nutrients, and Associations with Socio-Demographic and Lifestyle Factors in Older New Zealand Adults

“…No associations were observed between dietary patterns and age within the current study. Contrasting results have been reported in other studies in an older population [9,10,12,[14][15][16][17][18]. The narrow age band of the REACH study (65 to 74 years) may have precluded observing any associations.…”

“…For the studies that have reported the variation explained, the R 2 ranged from 1 to 44% [57][58][59]. Other factors explaining food choice included quality and price of food available, family preferences and taste, trying to eat healthy [60], and physical disability limiting access to food [18,61].…”

“…Several studies in older adults have explored dietary patterns and associated socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. Higher education, income, and physical activity have consistently been associated with 'healthy', 'vegetable based', and 'prudent' dietary patterns [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], whereas smoking is associated with 'Western', 'junk', and 'traditional/white bread' dietary patterns [10,11,[14][15][16][17]. In a New Zealand population of adults (15+ years), associations between socio-demographic factors and 'healthy' and 'traditional' dietary patterns were found [19].…”

Eating Habits of Elderly in Aceh-Indonesia and the Associated Demographic Factors

“…Occupation plays an important role on the quality of the diet [20]. It may be related to income [21], where the consequences for the retired elderly are: there is a decrease in income or even incomeless. In the next stage, they cannot access certain food products [22], including healthy foods according to their needs, physical condition, and age.…”

Social Factors of Dietary Risk Behavior in Older German Adults: Results of a Multivariable Analysis

“…The impact of age on dietary behavior among already older adults is ambiguous, as the results of previous research are partly inconsistent. While age was negatively associated with a “vegetable-based” pattern [ 30 ], no associations were observed between age and a “Mediterranean” pattern [ 19 ], or age and a “healthy” pattern [ 31 ]. In the analysis of age groups, a “healthy” pattern was negatively associated with the 75 years or older age group in the female sample, whereas no association could be found for the 70–74 age group [ 24 ].…”