Nutrition Knowledge, Attitude and Dietary Restriction Behaviour of the Elderly in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

Aim: To assess the nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour of the elderly.

Study Design: The study is a multi-stage cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria between May and September 2016.

Methodology: Two hundred and forty respondents (113 males, 127 females; age range ≥ 65 years) were randomly selected and used for the study. Validated, structured and an interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on demographic characteristics, nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour. Nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour responses were classified as poor (0-39%), fair (40- 59%) and good (≥ 60%) while SPSS software version 20.0 was used for statistical analysis using descriptive statistics and ANOVA and significance was judged at P = .05 and p < .01.

Results: Majority (96.85%) females and (95.58%) males had learnt about nutrition through radio and television (69.17%). Nutrition knowledge showed (49.6%) males and 46.5% females had fair knowledge; 43.4% males and 37.8% females had good knowledge while few (7.1%) males and 15.7% females had poor knowledge. There was a significant difference (P = .01) in the knowledge of respondents (poor, fair and good) for both males (F = 426.091) and females (F= 530.117). In attitude (51.33% males, 45.67% females) had a good attitude to nutrition while few (9.73% males and 14.17% females) had a poor attitude. Dietary restriction behaviour (57.52% males, 66.14% females) had good dietary restriction behaviour. There was a significant difference (P = .01) in dietary restriction behaviour scores for the males (F=111.722) and females (F=203.744).

Conclusion: Nutrition knowledge was generally above average; those with good attitude were statistically higher than those with fair or poor attitude to nutrition and most had good dietary restriction behaviour. Nutrition education regularly organized for the elderly will help to improve their knowledge.