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Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Association between mental health and meal patterns among elderly Koreans
1Faculty of Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.
Aim:
The present cross-sectional study analyzed the differences in mental health among community-dwelling elderly Koreans based on type of meal skipping and family meal frequency.
Methods:
We carried out a secondary data analysis using data from 4742 older adults aged ≥65 years from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V (2010-2012), a nationally representative sample.
Results:
In the final model, after adjusting for covariates, we found differences in stress, depression and suicidal ideation based on the type of meal skipping. Specifically, breakfast skippers showed a greater odds ratio for depression and suicidal ideation than breakfast eaters; dinner skippers showed a greater odds ratio for suicidal ideation than dinner eaters. We also found differences in stress, depression and suicidal ideation per family meal frequency.
Conclusions:
It is necessary to consider the type of meal skipping and family meal frequency while providing limited social resources to improve the mental health of older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 161-168.
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