THE PREVALENCE OF DIET RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG THE ELDERLY IN BIRIM CENTRAL MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT 

The basic needs of elderly people in society appears to be ignored or not sufficiently prioritized, Particularly, the elderly are not given adequate care in line with their nutritional needs due to food insecurity. This study was conducted in Birim Central Municipality. To investigate a prevalence of diet related health problems of the elderly, and the socio-economic determinants of these problems. The research methods used for the study were survey, and observation. The study employed the cross-sectional design. Two hundred (200) elderly people were purposively sampled from ten (10) conveniently selected settlements in the municipality. Questionnaire and observation checklist with calculated Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.79 were used as research instruments to collect data. The quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 software. The study revealed that less than 23% of the elderly suffered nutritional and diet related health problems, such as hypertension, overweight/obesity, weight loss, and constipation. The study identified poor place of residence, food or diet restrictions, weak social support system, and food unavailability as the determinants of these nutrition and health problems of the elderly. All indications from this study shows that many elderly people in the society are not given adequate care in line with their nutritional and basic needs and that the basic needs appears to be ignored or not sufficiently prioritized.The study recommended that caretakers and families of the elderly in the municipality should always provide adequate food to the elderly people. They should improve the feeding practices and nutrient content of foods given to elderly by feeding them with the right amount of carbohydrate, protein, and vitamin-giving foods three times or more in a day; and giving them adequate fresh fruits, vegetable and water.