Taipei Medical University.
N
utrition
e
ducation
t
o
e
nhance
a
wareness
o
f
m
etabolic
s
yndrome
a
nd
t
o
i
ncrease
v
egetable-
f
ruit
c
onsumption
i
n
t
he
e
lderly
I
ntroduction
Our study implemented nutritional education theories to conduct community-based nutrition education in the Xinyi District related to the threat of metabolic syndrome, and the necessity to increase daily intake of vegetables and fruits in the elderly.
S
ubjects and Methods
R
esults
C
onclusion
Chiao Yun Chuang, Chien-Yin Chen, Shwu-Huey Yang*
School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Taipei Medical University
All subjects were older than 65 years-old and living in the Xinyi District, Taipei, were recruited from Aug. 2008 to Mar. 2009. The education framework is based on education theories and information is simple and feasible with clear objectives, which emphasizes in recognizing metabolic syndrome and more intake of vegetable and fruits, as well as improving the positive attitude and practice of
subjects. Subjects were divided into intervention and control groups, each group consisted of 21 and 22 subjects. Demographic data, anthropometric data, and questionnaire about knowledge, diet, quality of life were collected.
Participants in the intervention group increased 1.8 servings of vegetable and fruit consumption after education, achieving our goal to increase vegetable and fruit consumption in the elderly, but the difference was not statistically significant. Based on the theory of stages of change model, this research also showed that subjects at the stages of pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation, obviously increased aggregated amounts of vegetables and fruits.
This intervention successfully helped subjects with lower intention of taking vegetables and fruits before the study to increase their intake amounts, especially of vegetables.
After the education, the intervention group increased consumption of vegetables (2.17 ± 1.91 vs. 3.57 ± 3.16 servings), and
vegetables plus fruit (3.32 ± 2.81 vs. 5.05 ± 4.91 servings), but no significant. To classify subjects by the concept of stage of change (SOC). Subjects in the action and
maintenance (A+M) stage increased
vegetable and fruit consumption, respectively (1.50 ± 4.26 and 0.95 ± 3.50 servings), and no statistically difference. Subjects in the pre-contemplation, pre-contemplation, and
preparation (P+C+PP) stage increased vegetables and vegetables plus fruit consumption (1.39 ± 1.90 and 1.36 ± 1.63 servings) significantly.
