Assessing diets of elderly people: problems and approaches

Abstract

This paper deals with the question of whether dietary assessment methods developed and validated for younger adults can be used in surveys for elderly people. From the literature it is clear that a decline in short-term memory with age makes the 24-h recall method particularly unreliable. Better results have been obtained with other methods, especially when a combination of methods is used and equipment is adapted for use by older people. However, validity of these methods when applied in older people is dependent on the group of elderly people under study and the type of information required for the purpose of the study. As an example, the validity of the adapted dietary-history method used in the Survey in Europe on Nutrition and the Elderly a Concerted Action (SENECA) is discussed. This method showed good agreement with the weighed record and with other evaluation criteria.