Daily eating events among co-living and single-living, diseased older men.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse, describe and compare the frequency and energy intake of eating events, including specific food items, among diseased older men living in ordinary housing. DESIGN: Descriptive and explorative. SETTING: Interviews were performed in the participants' home. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-five co-living and 26 single-living men, 64-88 years of age. Participants had one of three chronic diseases associated with difficulties in buying and preparing food and with difficulties related to the meal situation: Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or stroke. MEASUREMENTS: A repeated 24-h recall was used to assess food intake and meal patterns. RESULTS: Eating events were distributed over a 24-h period. Co-living men had a higher (p=0.001) number of eating events/day; both hot and cold eating events were consumed more frequently. There was no difference between groups concerning energy intake. Co-living men more often had hot eating events cooked from raw ingredients (p=0.001) and a greater mix of vegetables/roots (p=0.003) included in such eating events. CONCLUSION: Single-living men may constitute a vulnerable group from a nutritional perspective, while co-living men, besides the pleasure of eating with another person, seem to get support with food and eating events from their partners. Hence, the group of single-living men, particularly those with a disability, should receive particular attention with regard to possible food-related difficulties.

Older women and dietary advice: occurrence, comprehension and compliance.

BACKGROUND: When a person becomes ill, traditional food habits may come into conflict with the disease-related recommended diet. AIM: The aim was to study perceptions of receiving dietary advice, the occurrence and comprehension of such advice and compliance among older women diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, stroke or rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: The study took an ethnographic approach. Fifty-four community-dwelling women, 64-88 years of age, were interviewed using an open-ended interview technique during visits to their homes. FINDINGS: Two themes were found: 'dietary advice - occurrence and comprehension' describes whether the women had received dietary advice and, if so, how they understood the information. In the theme 'compliance with dietary advice', two principal reasons for complying or not complying with advice were found: First, women expressed a 'food interest', such that they were either 'interested in disease-related diet' or held a general view of the significance of foods and complied with the advice for their own 'health interest'. Secondly, the women were 'uninterested in food changes'. This could be because of 'poor appetite', 'food and disease ambivalence', 'habitual and preferred foods'. CONCLUSION: Dietary advice should be based on women's food preferences and habitual foods. It is important to inform about known relations between food and disease, but also to support eating favourite foods, thereby facilitating women's well-being.