Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics

Nutritional Status and Non-communicable Diseases in Older Ghanaians

Understanding the dietary habits of the elderly population is essential to the evaluation of their nutritional status and health. This study assessed the dietary patterns and association with NCDs of older adults in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 375 older people aged 60 years and above in the Municipality. Dietary patterns were drawn using 25 food items identified through food frequency questionnaire. The weight, height and blood pressure were measured and BMI calculated. Serum vitamin C and E were also determined for each respondent. The prevalence of overweight, obesity and high blood pressure among the older adults was 30.9%, 11.2% and 75.2% respectively. High blood pressure was significantly higher among participants with NCDs (83.7%) compared to those without NCDs (72.2%) (p=0.044). Additionally, being female older adult increases the risk of developing NCDs by 1.8 times (OR: 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1-2.7, p=0.006). Majority of the participants had low serum vitamin C (86.1%) and E (81.3%). Four different dietary patterns were identified, which were mainly from food groups; carbohydrate, protein, fruit and vegetable but no legumes, diary food and nuts and seeds. Older adults with no formal education were less likely to consume vegetables (pattern 2) (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-0.8, p=0.015) than those with formal education. Additionally, obese older adults were less likely to consume vegetables (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-0.7, p=0.009) and fish (pattern 3) (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.0-6.9, p=0.049) than normal adult. Obesity, high blood pressure was found among the older adults. Older adults had poor serum antioxidant vitamins. Although, dietary pattern of older adults in this study contained carbohydrate, protein, fruit and vegetable, it did not impact their serum antioxidant vitamins. There is the need for nutrition policies and education programmes to assist older people improve upon their nutrition, through consumption of varied foods from all the six food groups.

Author(s):

Charles Apprey*, Gabriel L.S. Kalog, Odeafo Asamoah- Boakye and Reginald A. Annan

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