Food for the Ageing Population

Monique Raats

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781845695484
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The world's ageing population is increasing and food professionals will have to address the needs of older generations more closely in the future. This unique volume reviews the characteristics of the ageing population as food consumers, the role of nutrition in healthy ageing and the design of food products and services for the elderly.Chapters in part one discuss aspects of the elderly's relationship with food such as appetite and ageing, ageing and sensory perception, food and satisfaction with life, and the social significance of meals. The second part of the book reviews the role of nutrition in extending functionality into later years, with chapters on topics such as undernutrition and conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, bone and joint health and eye-related disorders. Concluding chapters address the issues of food safety and the elderly, designing new foods and beverages for the ageing and nutrition education programmes.With its distinguished editors and contributors, Food for the ageing population is an essential reference for those involved in the research, development and provision of food products for the older generation. - A unique review of the chararacteristics of the ageing population as food consumers - Discusses aspects of the elderlys relationship with food, including appetite, ageing and sensory perception and the social significance of meals - Examines the role of nutrition in extending functionality in later years, focusing on undernutrition, Alzheimers and bone and joint health

Part I

Understanding older people as consumers of food and beverages

1

Older people, food and satisfaction with life

M. Dean Queen’s University Belfast, UK

M.M. Raats University of Surrey, UK

K.G. Grunert University of Aarhus, Denmark

Abstract

This chapter discusses food-related satisfaction with life of older people, identifying some of the determinants and barriers to satisfaction with food-related quality of life, and discusses possible ways of enhancing older people’s quality of life in the domain of food. Despite being strongly associated with life, and heavily contributing to the quality of life, food has so far been neglected and not much research has been conducted into people’s satisfaction with their food-related life and its relationship to overall life satisfaction. As people age, their goals and available resources in terms of health, social networks, income and skills change. Changes in resources can be expected to have an impact on satisfaction with life.

Key words

satisfaction

quality of life

older people

goals

resources

1.1 Introduction

Dietary intake and nutritional status not only play a major role in the overall quality of health of older people but also have impact on their satisfaction with life (Sahyoun, 1999; Vailas et al., 1998). Silverman et al. (2002) argue that the type of food eaten and the social cultural context all make significant contributions to older people’s satisfaction with their quality of life.

Investigating satisfaction with food-related life of older people has high significance for several reasons. Firstly, food and energy intake tend to decrease with ageing for a number of both physiological and practical reasons including reduced activity (immobility), reduced muscle tissue, a lower resting metabolic rate and smaller meals (Macintosch et al., 2000; Prinsley and Sandstead, 1990). This reduced energy intake, also known as ‘anorexia of ageing’, is a potential health risk because, although food intake is reduced with age, the need for most nutrients does not decrease with age. Secondly, ageing affects the ability to taste and smell. Also seniors are less sensitive to all the basic tastes and particularly smells. Both the ability to detect tastes and smells and their intensity decline with age and it has been suggested (Rolls, 1999; Westenhoefer, 2005) that sensory losses accompanying ageing may even be partly responsible for the reduced intake of foods (see Chapter 4). Further as people get older their living circumstances may alter. For example, as people retire, their level of income may reduce and their social network may also diminish. As health fails, access to shops and amenities may become a problem. As people lose their living companions due to death of spouse, or children leaving home, cooking arrangements may change. All these factors compound as people get older, affecting older people’s relationship with food and in turn their satisfaction with food-related life. By identifying which factors are important and what can be altered, it may be possible to increase older people’s satisfaction with food and in turn contribute to a better quality of life. This chapter looks at food-related satisfaction with life of older people, identifying some of the determinants and barriers to satisfaction with food-related quality of life, and discusses possible ways of enhancing older people’s quality of life in the domain of food.

1.2 Satisfaction and quality of life

Concepts such as quality of life, subjective well-being and life satisfaction are generally used in relation to older people when investigating the impact of ageing (Lumbers and Raats, 2006). As society changes, people’s experience of ageing and later life also alters (Wiggins et al., 2004). As health care and consequently life expectancy has increased (Office of National Statistics, 1998; Blaikie, 1999) and retirement age decreased (Gruber and Wise, 1999), these changes have had great impact on older people’s satisfaction with their quality of life. Gabriel and Bowling (2004) argue that research in the US investigates variables that contribute to the ‘good life’ and address both the positive and negative aspect of ageing. In Europe, on the other hand, they claim that the emphasis is on the functional aspects of ageing, which tend to be negative and more concerned with dependency, poverty, service needs and decline in mental and physical health, although they acknowledge that there is a gradual shift from this perspective towards one where old age is seen as one providing personal fulfilment.

Wiggins et al. (2004) claim that older people’s quality of life is shaped by age, gender, accommodation and environment of past life, pension provision, health status, current housing and whether or not they have access to a car. However, despite being used frequently in the literature, quality of life is not a clearly defined construct and is usually used to describe different physical and psychological factors (Moons et al., 2006). There is no consensus about how it is defined or how it should be measured (Felce, 1997; Haas, 1999; Moons et al., 2006; Zhan, 1992). The measurement of the quality of life construct usually includes both objective measures and subjective perceptions (Moons et al., 2006), where the subjective part is often referred to as ‘subjective well-being’, and divided into affective and cognitive parts (Andrews and Withey, 1976). The cognitive component is a subjective, judgmental evaluation of life circumstances which is a global assessment of a person’s quality of life according to his/her chosen criteria. The most well-known measure of subjective well-being is the Satisfaction With Life Scale developed by Diener and his colleagues (Diener et al., 1985). If the factors influencing one’s satisfaction with quality of life are known, it is possible to intervene and find ways of improving satisfaction with life.

Researchers have partitioned life into multiple domains and view satisfaction with quality of life as a composite measure of satisfaction in each of these domains (Andrews and Withey, 1976; Campbell et al., 1976; Day, 1987; Diener, 1984; Hsieh, 2003). Here a domain is viewed as an aspect of life about which people have feelings (Andrews and Withey, 1976) or as an area of human experience that most people find significant (Campbell et al., 1976). Domain-specific satisfactions with life measures are useful when assessing the effect of changes in life circumstances in a specific domain. Headey et al. (1991) divide life into six domains: marriage, work, material standard of living, leisure, friendship and health, whereas Hsieh (2003) divides life into eight domains: health, work, spare time, financial situation, neighbourhood, family life, friendships and religion. Argyle (2001), on the other hand, divided life into domains such as money, health, work and employment, social relationships, leisure, housing and education. Whilst the domains proposed have been arbitrary, diverse and to some degree overlapping (Cummings, 1996), one very important life domain, food, has consistently been neglected in the various instruments presented in the literature.

1.3 How does food contribute to quality of life?

Food is so important that it permeates all aspects of human life and engages and interjects with almost all of our activities: leisure, arts, sex and work. Despite being strongly associated with life, and heavily contributing to the quality of life, food has so far been neglected and not much research has been conducted into people’s satisfaction with their food-related life and its relationship to overall life satisfaction.

In the health domain, a broad quality of life measure has been used in nutritional studies (Schlettwein-Gsell, 1992; Barr and Schumacher, 2003; Jackson et al., 2005), to measure baseline status and intervention effects. Dietary intervention studies measure outcomes from a patient perspective, most notably in the clinical areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal disease and enteral feeding (Jackson et al., 2005). Recent attempts to construct a quality of life instrument for specific use in nutrition studies have contributed to the construction of the Nutrition Quality of Life Survey (Barr et al., 2001; Barr and Schumacher, 2003) and the Quality of Life Factors Q...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• Acknowledgement
• Contributor contact details
• Introduction
• Part I: Understanding older people as consumers of food and beverages
• Part II: Extending functionality into later life
• Part III: Developing food products and services for older people
• Index