Dietary Habits as Indicated by Food Consumption Patterns among Elderly Japanese Women Living Alone in a Large City

Abstract

Recently, economically independent elderly persons who live alone have increased in cities. Their health and/or social conditions have scarcely been studied, though the social needs such as primary care for them have increased. In order to clarify the relationship between elderly people's lifestyle and their dietary habits, we surveyed 62 elderly female volunteers living in Yokohama, using the conventional lifestyle questionnaire and the self-weighed method for foods consumed. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Food intake of the subject elderly women living alone was slightly smaller in amounts of foods taken, with large variations among them. 2. Three factors were found to be related to the elderly people's lifestyle by factor analysis. These factors, which differed from those in the Japanese National Nutrition Survey, were the subjects' economic status, staple food intake, and side-dish intake. 3. Regarding the relationship between the scores for three factors obtained by factor analysis and the subjects' lifestyle, it was clarified that the first factor, which represented the subjects'economic status, was strongly related to their lifestyle.