Assessment of nutrition education needs among a sample of elderly Chinese in an urban area

As Malaysia is moving towards a rapidly developing economy, its elderly population is also expected to increase not only in numbers and proportion but also in their life expectancies. This demographic shift from a relatively young population to one that includes an increasing number of old and very old age group presents a real challenge to nutritionists and health professionals. The challenge is to maintain a healthy and vigorous elderly population who can lead fulfilling and independent lives. Health promotion and disease prevention efforts, including nutrition education, targeted towards this group can contribute important elements in meeting the challenge. The objective of the study was to assess the nutrition education needs of a sample of elderly Chinese in an urban area. The sample consisted of 34 males and 36 females, whose age ranged from 55 to 86 years. They were generally affluent and well-educated with a mean income of RM101 1.86 and 8.0 years of formal education. A self-administered questionnaire which requires 20 to 30 minutes to complete was used to collect the information. The results of the nutrition knowledge assessment indicated that the typical respondent correctly identified 16 of the 22 nutrition knowledge statements. A majority (91.4%) of the respondents recognized the fact that tomato, dark green leafy vegetables, and orange juice are good sources of vitamin C, while the statement on vitamin supplementation was correctly answered by only 15.7% of the respondents. The mean nutrition knowledge score was 26.14 with a range of between 18 and 36. The t-test indicated a significant difference (t=3.63, p_0.05) between males and females in their nutrition knowledge scores, with the males having higher mean scores. Although only 8.6% of the respondents reported they had participated before in a nutrition education programme, a majority of them believed that nutrition education can improve the nutritional and health status of the elderly. A majority (80%) of the respondents mentioned newspaper articles as their source of nutrition information, while only 8.6% indicated the dietitian as their source of information. However, the doctor was identified as a more creditable and reliable source of information by a majority.