Relationship with food choice motives, the vegetable choice, self-rated health and personal attributes of the elderly females

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We should understand the perceived individual motives for food choices by the elderly when developing health promotion programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between the food choice motives, the personal attributes, the vegetable score and the self-rated health in order to promote vegetable intake.SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The participants were 304 elderly females with a higher-level of functional capacity. Data collection was conducted using the questionnaire survey method. FCQ-E （Food Choice Questionnaire for the elderly; 9 factors, 27items） was used to measure the motives. The structural equation modeling was used for the analysis.RESULT: “Nutrition balance” was affected by any personal disease, the living arrangement, age, and the study years. “Physical well-being” was affected by their disease, the living arrangement, and age. “Economical efficiency” was affected by their disease, the study years, and the self-rated chewing. “Nutrition balance”, their disease, and their experience which included special learning, were important predictors of the vegetable score. For the vegetable score, “Physical well-being”, and “Economical efficiency” were important predictors of the self-rated health.CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggested that promoting vegetable consumption of elderly people could be done by motivating “Nutritional balance” and “Economical efficiency”.（Goodness of Fit Index），AGFI（Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index），CFI（Comparative Fit Index），RMSEA（Root