Association between Perceptions of Changes in Food Preferences and Objective Factors among Early-stage Elderly

Abstract

 It is well-known that promoting healthy eating habits is an effective approach to prevent and treat lifestyle-related diseases. However, the association between food preferences, which are strongly related to eating habits and oral function, excluding the sense of taste, and objective factors is unclear. This study aimed to examine whether changes in food preferences were influenced by participants’ characteristics. A total of 656 early-stage elderly underwent a health check-up, including an oral health survey, which was conducted in 2017 in Ohnan Town, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Among them, data from 484 people (44.2% males and 55.8% females) were used in the analyses. Results indicated that 129 participants felt that they had changing food preferences. We performed a logistic regression analysis including changes in food preferences as a dependent variable to clarify the percent contribution of examined factors. Our results showed that the medical history factor (31.9%) was the most influential, and the values of other factors were as follows: oral-related factors (28.1%), mastication-related factors

(21.1%), diet-related factors (17.2%), and participants’ characteristics (1.7%). Based on the questionnaire age was the most closely related to events that affect changes in food preferences from a subjective point of view. Our results suggest that factors related to dental medicine, such as oral-related factors, mastication-related factors, and diet-related factors could be influential, accounting for food preferences along with medical history among community dwelling elderly.