Relationships among nutritional self‐efficacy, health locus of control and nutritional status in older Taiwanese adults

Abstract

Nurses can help older persons identify factors that relate to their nutritional status and plan effective interventions to maintain healthy nutrition behaviours with the following risk characteristics: (1) lower level of education, (2) more chronic diseases and (3) external control orientation.

Nutritional screening of older home-dwelling Norwegians: a comparison between two instruments

“…A lower level of education has been found to be a risk factor in other studies 5,50. According to Feldblum et al,50 education ≤ 12 years could predict undernutrition.…”

“…They found that 28% were at risk of undernutrition, ie, a higher prevalence than in our study. However, it can be expected that older people visiting a clinic were a more homogeneous group with respect to personal health, and thereby had a higher risk of undernutrition, because disease is known to have a negative effect on nutritional status 5–7. In our study, the sample is assumed to mirror the heterogeneity of home-dwelling older people, ie, from healthy younger older people to very old people who are expected to be suffering from illness and disease.…”

“…Some of these were identical, ie, having chronic disease/handicap, receiving family help, eating sufficiently, and having contact with neighbors. Chronic disorders are well known to affect nutritional status in a negative way 5,6,8,36. Similarly, having depression or depressive symptoms has been suggested to be closely related to risk of undernutrition 4,7,33,37.…”

“…Being at risk of undernutrition or undernourished in older age is multifaceted. It has been found that advanced age,4–7 the presence of several comorbidities,5–7 hospitalization in the previous year,7 decline in intellectual activity,8 being functionally dependent,6,7 receiving help to manage daily life,7,9,10 and receiving meals on wheels11 are associated with undernutrition or risk of undernutrition among home-dwelling older people. Loss of a spouse,6,8,12 living alone,9,10 having a lower level of education,5 perceiving impaired health,7,9,11 and lowered quality of life7 are further factors found to be related to impaired nutritional status in older home-living people.…”

Nutritional status and its health‐related factors among older adults in rural and urban areas

“…These associations may explain the common association of older age with poor nutritional status (Nyk€ anen et al 2013). Older adults in Taiwan have been shown to have poor nutritional knowledge, insufficient dietary intake and inadequate nutritional status (Department of Health 2004, Chen et al 2010, Chen & Shao 2012. Furthermore, older adults' dietary issues have been related to seven of the ten leading causes of their death in Taiwan (Ministry of Health & Welfare 2013) and a systematic review found that nutrition was commonly associated with mortality of older hospitalized adults and nursing home residents in western countries (Thomas et al 2013).…”